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VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

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ENGLISH G<iHRNEL{

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VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

i 1 1

mainly during the 16th and 17th Centuries

Vol. I

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, F.R.G.S.

FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD

Author of The Dawn of Modern Geography

WESTMINSTER

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD.

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

The texts contained in the present volume are re¬
printed with very slight alterations from the English
Garner issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London,
8vo) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient
guarantee for the accurate collation of the texts
with the rare originals, the old spelling being in
most cases carefully modernised. The contents of
the original Garner have been rearranged and now
for the first time classified, under the general
editorial supervision of Mr. Thomas Seccombe.
Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation
of fresh matter. The Introductions are wholly
new and have been written specially for this issue.

Edinburgh : Printed by T. and A. Constable.

CONTENTS TO VOLUME I

1. Captain Roger Bodenham’s Voyage to Scio in 1551. [From

Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, 1599-1600], .

2. Robert Tomson, of Andover, Merchant : his Voyage to the

West Indies and Mexico, 1556-58. [From Hakluyt’s
Principal Navigations, 1589], ......

3. Master Roger Bodenham : his Trip to Mexico, 1564-65.

[From the Hakluyt of 1589], .

4. Sir John Hawkins’ First Voyage to the West Indies, October

1562 — September 1563. [From the Hakluyt of 1589],

5. Sir John Hawkins’ Second Voyage to the West Indies, 18th

October 1564— 20th September 1565. [From the Hakluyt

of 1589], .

6. The Third Voyage of Sir John Hawkins, 1567-68, .

i. Earliest Tidings of the Disaster in England. [From

the State Papers ; Domestic ; Elizabeth, vol. 48,
no. 50 ; vol. 49, no. 37 ; vol. 49, no. 36 ; vol. 49,
no. 42], .

ii. A true declaration of the troublesome Voyage of

John Hawkins to Guinea and the West Indies in
1567-68. [Printed at London, 1 569],

iii. Depositions in the English Admiralty Court as to

the Fight at San Juan de Ulua. [From the State
Papers; Domestic; Elizabeth; July 1569, vol.
53], • .

PAGE

104

Voyages and Travels

PAGE

7. Hawkins’ pretended treachery in the summer of 1571. [From

State Papers ; Scotland ; Mary Queen of Scots, vol. 6,
no. 61], .

8. Jasper Campion : The English Trade to Scio, 1539-70. [From

the Hakluyt of 1599-1600], .

9. Anthony M unday : Captivity of John Fox. [From the

Hakluyt of 1589], .

10. Thomas Stevens, an English Jesuit ; his Voyage to India by

the Cape Route. [From the Hakluyt of 1589; reprinting
a letter from Goa, 1 579], .

11. The Third Hawkins’ Voyage, 1567-68 ; three narratives by

survivors, .

i. David Ingram’s relation, of 1582, August — Sep¬

tember. [From the Hakluyt of 1589 ; in Sloane
MSS., 1447], .

ii. Miles Phillips’ Discourse, of 1583 [?]. [From the

Hakluyt of 1589], .

iii. Job Hortop’s Travels. [From the Hakluyt of 1 599-

1600; originally printed in 1591],

12. Thomas Sanders: The Unfortunate Voyage of the Jesus to

Tripoli, in 1584. [From the Hakluyt of 1589 and the
original publication of 1587, March 31],

13. John Chilton: Travels in Mexico, 1568-85. [From the

Hakluyt of 1 589], .

14. The Voyage of Thomas Cavendish round about the Globe,

1586-88. [From the Hakluyt of 1589], .

15. The first Englishmen who reached India overland, 1583-89

[From the Hakluyt of 1599-1600, Linschoten’s Discourse of
Voyages, 1598, etc.], . .

127

131

139

152

161

173

219

243

263

281

295

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I

The following collection of voyages and travels, mainly of
Elizabethan Englishmen, is the reappearance of an old
friend, or rather of many old friends. As distributed
throughout the volumes of ‘Arber’s Garner ,’ these narratives
have long been consulted by students of the Tudor and
Stuart periods : they are now separated from the matter
relating to other subjects in Prof. Arber’s great compilation,
and arranged as nearly as possible in strict chronological
order. The greater number, amounting to a little less than
half the present body of text, are reprinted (with occasional
compression) from Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations , either
from the first edition of 1589 (so constantly superior in
clearness of arrangement and judgment of selection to any
later stage of that memorable work), or else from the bulkier
edition of 1599-1600, the final Hakluyt of the compiler’s
own life and labour. But besides these Hakluytian pieces,
the present volumes contain the interesting and not easily
accessible correspondence between William Hawkins and
Sir William Cecil of December 1568 and January 1569,
relative to the disaster of ‘ San J uan d’Ulloa ’ (pp. 83-90), and
the still more important depositions of March 1569 in the
English Admiralty Court as to the aforesaid disaster, the
guilt of the Spanish assailants of Sir John Hawkins, and
the losses sustained by his fleet on that occasion (see vol. i.
pp. 104-26). Here is also reprinted the correspondence
necessary to give a summary view of John Hawkins’ pre-

viii Voyages and Travels

tended intrigue with Spain in the summer of 1571 (vol. i.
pp. 127-30).

It is in the second volume, however, that we find the
gems of the present collection — an abridgment of the first
part of Linschoten’s Itinerario , Sir Francis Drake revived ,
and The Captivity of Robert Knox\ the first (pp. 1-126 of
vol. ii. and pp. 321-30 of vol. i.) being from the standard old
English version of the Dutch text made in 1598; the
second (pp. 220-94) from the very rare edition of 1626 ;
and the third (pp. 295-429) from the original text of 1681.
All three are narratives of first-class value, not too easy to
procure, and as interesting as they are valuable.

Of lesser importance, but even by themselves giving
reason sufficient for the present issue, are such tracts as
Edward Wright’s Voyage of the Earl of Cumberland (1589),
The ‘ Dolphin's 5 Sea-Fight against Five Turkish Men of War
(1616-7), and The Captivity of Richard Hasleton (1582-92 ;
see vol. ii. pp. 186-212 ; 213-20; 151-80).

Professor Arber’s businesslike and suggestive notes have
usually been retained, and with these and the help of this
Introduction it is hoped that students of the great age of
discovery may find some use in a series of narratives so
vivid in style, so photographic in their character-sketches,
so admirably characteristic of the men and the times to
which they refer.

Of the first three tracts in volume i. (pp. 1-28) — Roger
Bodenham’s Voyage to Scio in 1551, Tomson’s Voyage to the
West Indies and Mexico in 1555-8, and Roger Bodenham’s
fourney to Mexico in 1564-5 — it is not necessary to say
much. The first is from the final edition of Hakluyt
{Principal Navigations') of 1599-1600, the second and third
from Hakluyt’s first edition of 1589. It is noteworthy that

Introduction

Robert Tomson, in 1555, found English traders, servants
of two City Merchants, engaged in commerce in Grand
Canary ; and that in the town of Mexico itself he arrived
only to find himself anticipated by a Scotsman. This
pioneer, one Thomas Blake, had been there over twenty
years (in 1556), and must therefore have appeared in that
remote Spanish possession before 1536, or less than fifteen
years after Cortes’ conquest (1521). Richard Chancellor,
‘who first discovered Russia,’ was with Bodenham in the
voyage to Scio : it may perhaps be noted that the real
discoverer of Russia to Western Europe was the Imperial
envoy Sigismund von Herberstein, who in 1517 and 1526
(more than thirty years before Chancellor) visited Moscow,
and compiled the most valuable of all early descriptions of
Muscovy. The voyage of Chancellor and Willoughby in
1553 was really in search of the north-east passage to
Cathay ; in the course of this unsuccessful venture
Chancellor and his men found their way to the White Sea,
the Dvina, and the court of Ivan the Terrible; thus
opening Russia to English and Western European trade
by a new and direct route, and outflanking the obstructive
monopoly of the Hanse traders of the Baltic.

Next comes the series of John Hawkins’ voyages (1562-8)
to the West Indies ; and here it will be necessary to say
rather more by way of preface (see vol. i. pp. 29-130, 161-
242). The narrative of the first Hawkins voyage hereafter
printed is from the Hakluyt of 1589, First Voyage of Sir
John Hawkins , . . . made to the West Indies 1562. John
Hawkins, younger son of William Hawkins, the Brazil
trader of 15 30, seems to have been born in or about 1532,
though the traditional date is 1520. According to Hakluyt,
it was by divers voyages to the Canaries that John had

Voyages and Travels

‘informed himself by diligent inquisition of the State of the
West India (whereof he had received knowledge by the
instructions of his father, but increased the same by
the advertisements and reports of that people). And being
amongst other particulars assured that Negroes were very
good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of Negroes
might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, [he] resolved
with himself to make trial thereof.’ These voyages of
John’s to the Canaries were probably subsequent to 1555,
the year of old William’s death, and they soon brought
such profit, that shortly after the accession of Elizabeth the
future sea-king married a daughter of Benjamin Gonson,
Treasurer of the Royal Navy. Already, in 1553, the
English had begun to struggle for a share of the Guinea
trade; and in 1561 Gonson had joined in a syndicate
whose aim was to establish a factory at Benin or some
other point in the Guinea littoral, in defiance of Portuguese
opposition.1 The enterprise failed, but in 1562 it was
renewed, while Hawkins prepared for a still more daring
venture — no less than the commercial invasion of the
Spanish American monopoly by means of the African, or
more particularly the Guinea, slave trade. As to this
commerce, it had been practised by the Portuguese con¬
tinually since 1441, when Antam Gonsalves brought home
certain Mouros negros from the neighbourhood of Cape
Bojador.2 In 1517 Charles V. formally licensed the
importation of African negroes into the West Indies. The
trade was supported by philanthropic arguments, as by
the generous Las Casas, who (for a time) saw in it the

1 The Queen, as Mr. Corbett well suggests (Drake, i. 78), was possibly a
shareholder in this venture : the Minion was certainly lent to the venturers
from the Royal Navy.

2 Cf. Azurara, Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, chs. xii.-xiv.

Introduction

only means of preserving the weaker American Indians
from extinction. Las Casas changed his view before his
death ; but he had at least the satisfaction of stopping
many abuses, and imposing a certain responsibility on the
traders. No one was now permitted to take part in the
commerce without a royal licence, only granted at a high
price ; a duty was also imposed on every slave that entered
the West Indies from Guinea.

In 1551, 17,000 licences for slave-importation from Africa
to the West Indies were offered for sale by the Spanish
Government. In 1553 Fernando Ochoa obtained a mono¬
poly of the slave trade for seven years, during which he
bound himself to import 23,000 negroes. Two years
after the expiry of Ochoa’s term Hawkins entered the
field with a bold attempt to break through the monopoly
altogether.

No English fleet had yet ventured into the Spanish
sphere, though from the days of William Hawkins and his
Brazil voyage of 1530 our countrymen had been attempting
to break into the mare clausum of the weaker Portuguese.
The Spanish name was too imposing, the trade with the
European ports of the Spanish Empire, — in the Peninsula,
in the Netherlands, and in Italy — was too precious an
asset of our early trade to be lightly affronted or en¬
dangered.

John Hawkins, therefore, when he proposed a venture,
which to any prudent man foreshadowed inevitable trouble
with Spain, found but a few inclined to back his venture.
The chief of these were Alderman Lionel Ducket, an
enterprising Father of London City, and Thomas Lodge
(afterwards Sir Thomas), a Governor of the Muscovy
Company, which, since the Russian voyage of Chancellor

xii

Voyages and Travels

and Willoughby in 1553, had won a very prominent posi¬
tion in English trade-expansion. Three ‘private’ ships,
the largest of 120 tons, were fitted out, and with this little
squadron and a cargo of English goods Hawkins set out
in October 1562. With this voyage opened the great
commercial (and so political) struggle that ended with the
downfall of Spanish oceanic power. Deeper even than
religious hatred, we may find the prime cause of the long
and bitter war of Elizabethan England against Spain lies
in the trade rivalry for the Western world and in the
aggressive mercantile policy of the English people.

At Teneriffe Hawkins had formed a trade-alliance with
one Pedro de Ponte, an ambitious and not too patriotic
merchant, who was shrewdly suspected of having suggested
the whole project of the West Indian trade to the English, and
at his hands the adventurers received their prime necessity,
a pilot for Spanish America. On the Guinea coast the
‘interlopers’ kidnapped about three hundred slaves who were
sold at a very large profit in various ports of Hispaniola,
Hayti, or San Domingo. Hawkins chartered two extra
vessels to transport the surplus of his gains to Europe, and
with an almost incredible assurance, professedly relying on
the old commercial treaties (of 1495, 1499, etc.) between
England and Burgundy, sent these ships to be sold at
Cadiz in charge of Captain Hampton, his second in
command (1563). They were promptly confiscated, and a
long-standing implicit prohibition was now made suffi¬
ciently explicit. The Spanish colonies of the New World
were forbidden absolutely and without exception to trade
with the English in any way.

Hawkins’ second voyage (1564-5) was supported by a
far more powerful syndicate than the first. Among the

Introduction

Xlll

shareholders 1 of the capital appears to have been the Queen*
who lent the expedition its flagship or ‘ admiral/ the Jesus
of Lubeck, a vessel of 700 tons, which had been bought for
the English navy by Henry VIII. from the Hanse traders of
Lubeck. Elizabeth’s stake in the venture may be judged
from the fact that the Jesus was valued at £4000 (perhaps
^30,000 — ^40,000 of our money). The Earl of Pembroke was
another shareholder, and efforts were made, though in vain,
to induce Cecil (Burleigh) to join. Nothing in the nature
of illicit commerce or piracy attracted the conservative
leader of English statesmen ; but he took no steps, as on
certain subsequent occasions, to nip in the bud a possible
buccaneering outgrowth of legitimate trade.

Again Hawkins made for Teneriffe and his friend, Pedro
de Ponte; again he provided himself with the needful
information in the very house of his rivals ; again he
prospected successfully for slaves on the Guinea coast2
(going every day on shore to hunt his negroes, ‘ with
burning and spoiling of their towns ’) ; again he crossed to
the West Indies, but not this time to Hispaniola. Well
aware of King Philip’s prohibition and of the certainty that
in the great colonial centre of San Domingo, if anywhere,
no smuggling would be allowed, he tried his luck in the

1 The usual practice, as Mr. Corbett explains {Drake, i. 82), was for a
small group of capitalists (commonly about five) to ‘underwrite’ or become
responsible for definite portions of the required capital, which they placed
among their friends. Only the names of the original underwriters, who were
directors of the company, usually appeared ; among their backers were often
to be found the leading people in the State, the Queen, the Earl of Pembroke,
etc. On the Jesus , cf. State Papers, Domestic, xxxvii. 61; Oct. 23, 1565.

2 Just at the same time the Garrard Company’s fleet, with the Minion as
flag-ship, sailed for Guinea and was discomfited off La Mina. Hawkins was
much aggrieved at the information given by the Minion's people to certain
negro tribes near Cape Verde, ‘of nature very gentle and loving,’ whom he was
attempting to kidnap.

XIV

Voyages and Travels

ports of the ‘Spanish Main’ or Tierra Firma, the con¬
tinental province whose coast stretched from the Orinoco
to the Isthmus of Panama.

The harbour of ‘ Burboroata,’ Burburata or Borburata,
where he began operations, is the ‘ Burborough water ’ of
later English seamen, in the Golfo Triste on the Venezuela
coast, now marked out by a deserted creek or ensenada ,
some five leagues east of the present Puerto Cabello.1
Here, as at Curagao and Rio de la Hacha, the cheerful
insolence of the English captain ‘ forcing to friendly com¬
merce ’ proved completely successful ; the ‘ lean and sick
negroes ’ were sold at good profit (60 per cent.) ; and on his
way home Hawkins was able to succour the distressed
Huguenot colony of Laudonniere in Florida. The reason
of their misfortune was clear to the Englishmen : the
French settlers had no labourers, but being soldiers, desired
to live by the sweat of other men’s brows : one of their
chief comforts was ‘tabacco,’ by the great virtue whereof
they could satisfy their hunger for four or five days
without meat or drink.

Not only was gold and silver plentiful in Florida,
Hawkins reported, but unicorns and other useful com¬
modities might be found there ; to settle and colonise
this country would be an attempt requisite for a prince of
power ; the increase from cattle alone, without counting
the precious metals, would bring profit sufficient (pp. 73-
79). So keenly were the eyes of English pioneers already
fixed upon the Western world as a field for colonising
energy.2

1 Corbett, Drake , i. 84 ; Blaeu, Atlas Major , 1652, vol. ii. f. 89.

2 The narrative of the second Hawkins voyage, hereafter printed, is from the
Hakluyt of 1589, written by one John Sparke, a gentleman adventurer who
accompanied Hawkins.

Introduction

After Hawkins’ second return, a new Spanish ambassador,
Don Diego Guzman De Silva, came to England, and to his
watchful energy was largely due that greater alertness of
the Spanish authorities which ruined the third venture of
the interlopers (1567-8). In 1565-6 Francis Drake seems
to have sailed to the Spanish Main with one Captain Lovell,
and to have been roughly handled at Rio de la Hacha, a not
wholly unnatural retaliation for A chines' behaviour there
a few months before ;x but De Silva’s diplomacy prevented
Hawkins from breaking loose again till 1567. Then at
last, after many a check and double, the Adventurers got
clear away. Backed by a syndicate, at the head of which
were Alderman Lionel Ducket and Sir William Garrard,
and to which the Queen appears to have lent her support
(as a shareholder) even more generously than before, the
English captain slipped off from Plymouth on October 2,
1567, with a fleet of six vessels, two of them from the royal
navy. These were the Jesus of Lubeck (700 tons ; 180 men
in crew; 22 heavy and 42 lighter guns) and the Minion
(350 tons): the private barks were the William and John
of 150 tons, the Swallow of 100, the Judith of 50, and the
Angel of 32. Francis Drake sailed as captain and master of
the Judith, being then, according to Stow, twenty-two years
of age. The squadron had an ‘Admiral,’ ‘Vice-Admiral,’

‘ General,’ and ‘ Captain of Soldiers,’ the complete naval
equipment, and carried a force of between 600 and 700
men, in De Silva’s opinion. Hawkins’ Syndicate had sub¬
scribed sums equal to ;£ 16,000 of modern money to the
expedition : Hawkins’ own property on the Jesus of Lubeck

1 In the same year Fenner of Chichester, who had intended sailing to the
West Indies with Hawkins, was obliged to content himself with a Guinea voyage,
in which he exchanged some hard knocks with the Portuguese.

XVI

Voyages and Travels

was estimated at between ^"3000 and ^4000 in modern
value.1 In reading the various narratives referring to this
voyage, we cannot help noticing how constantly Hawkins’
own (official) account requires supplementing from the
narratives of the Englishmen who landed on the Mexico
coast, and after so many trials escaped to England. David
Ingram, Job Hartop, and Miles Phillips2 were the survivors
of a hundred of Hawkins’ seamen who volunteered to go
ashore from the overcrowded Minion (rescued with such

1 As to the authorities for the third Hawkins voyage : — Hawkins’ own
account of the voyage of 1567-8 (afterwards reprinted by Hakluyt; see vol. i*
pp. 91-103) was originally printed in 1569 under the title A true declaration oj
the troubleso7?ie voyage of Mr. John Hawkins to the parts of Guinea and the West
Indies in the years . . . 1567 and 1568. Miles Phillips, who returned from
captivity in 1583, compiled his narrative with the assistance of Hawkins’
report.

The affidavits as to the losses at San Juan de Ulua (printed in vol. i. pp. 104-
26) are from a manuscript volume in the Public Record Office (6*. P. Dom .,
Eliz. liii.) — Sir John Hawkins' Voyage , 1569 (July 2). Of the eleven depositions,
only Hawkins’ own is here printed in full. This, of course, was the English
Government’s official statement of its case. The Spanish Government’s has been
lately rediscovered by Captain Fernandez Duro from the Coleccion Navarrete ,
and a version of it is given in Corbett, Drake , i. 417-20. It was originally sent
by Philip 11. to Alva with orders to forward it to the Spanish Ambassador in
London (cf. Spanish Calendar , 1568-79, p. no; Feb. 18, 1569): but Alva
advised and procured its suppression. Besides these, there is Herrera’s account
of the action at San Juan, in his Historia General , Part 1. book xv. chap. 18 ;
a letter from Hawkins to Cecil written from the Minion , on his return to Eng¬
land, the same day as his arrival at Plymouth ; and the narratives of Ingram,
Phillips, and Plartop.

Drake was considered by Hawkins to have deserted after the San Juan
disaster. ‘So with the . . . Judith, a small bark . . .’ (says John) ‘we
escaped ; which bark the same night forsook us in our great misery. ’ (See
vol. i. p. 101.) This was long remembered against him : even in 1587 Admiral
Borough retorts upon the great captain with the charge, so much exaggerated
by Herrera, so discreetly softened away by Miles Phillips (‘the same night the
said bark lost us ’ : see vol. i. p. 183.)

? For David Ingram, see vol. i. pp. 161-72 (reprinted from the Hakluyt of 15 >9,
p. 557) ; for Miles Phillips, see vol. i. pp. 173-218 (from the Hakluyt of 1589, or
i599-i6oo, pp. 469-87) ; for Job Hartop, see vol. i. pp. 219-42 (from the Hakluyt
of 1599-1600, vol. iii. pp. 487-495 ; first printed as a separate tract in 1591)*

Introduction

XVII

difficulty from the catastrophe at San Juan), in order
to save the remaining hundred ; and the stories of these
three survivors are given in vol. i. pp. 161-242. Ingram’s
record,1 the most fabulous but fortunately the shortest of
the three, was omitted from Hakluyt’s final edition of 1599-
1600 — although in some points ‘this Examinate’s’ testi¬
mony is certainly worth preserving — ‘ the reward of lying,’
as Purchas complains, ‘ being not to be believed in truths ’
( Pilgrimes , vol iv. p. 1179, ed. of 1625; book vi. ch. 4).

It is from Hartop, a gunner of the Jesusy not from
Hawkins himself, that we learn of the reprisals under¬
taken by the English squadron against the Portuguese,
during the first stage of the voyage, off West Africa.
Hartop also is the only one who tells us how, at Margarita
island in the West Indies, ‘our general, in despite of the
Spaniards, landed and took in fresh victuals’; how at
Placentia the bishop [and people] ‘ hearing of our coming
for fear forsook the town ’ ; how at Rio de la Hacha
Drake cut out, ran ashore, and seized as prize a Spanish
‘caravel of advice,’ or official despatch boat, from the Vice¬
roy at San Domingo. Speaking in 1591, Hartop had no
motive to conceal anything.

As to Hawkins’ tempest-tost career in the Gulf of
Mexico and the harbour of San Juan de Ulua (‘Ulloa’),
an interesting and valuable commentary on the Hawkins
narratives may be found in Robert Tomson’s account
of his journey in 1555-58, 2 and in John Chilton’s Travels

1 It must be very seriously doubted whether David Ingram ever made such an
extensive journey in the interior of North America as he claims — from the Gulf
of Mexico to within fifty leagues or thereabouts of Cape Breton.

2 The Voyage of Robert Tomsony merchant, into Nova Hispania (1555-8);
see vol. i. pp. 7-23 ; for Chilton’s Travels , see pp. 265-80. Both these are from
the Hakluyt of 1589.

1.^4

xviii Voyages and Travels

in Mexico between 1568 and 1585, also printed in this
collection.

In reading the account of the naval action at San
Juan it may also be noted that the English ships carried
a far heavier artillery than the Spaniards. Thus
the Jesus ‘could throw 250 lbs.’1 from her twenty-two
heavy guns alone without counting the discharge of
her forty-two lighter pieces. Had the English not lost
command of the eleven guns they had mounted on
the island, they would probably have won. Until the
undisputed possession of this islet had been granted — in
words at least — to his force, Hawkins, though professing
himself so ‘orderly’ and a ‘hater of folly’ (otherwise
piracy), forbade the Viceroy of Mexico entrance to his
own chief port. ‘ If he be Viceroy, I represent my Queen’s
person, and I am Viceroy as well as he.’ After this
perhaps a struggle to the death was only to be expected,
though not such an ‘affair of foxes’ as the treacherous
indignation of Martin Enrinquez and Francisco de Luxan2
contrived. It was a terrible revenge for such incidents
as the trading at Rio de la Hacha in 1565, when Hawkins
gave his unwilling customers the choice of ‘granting him
a market ’ or ‘ else to stand to their own harms,’ when the
Spanish prices were raised by the ‘breakfast’ salutation
of a volley of ordnance and a landing-party, and when
accounts were settled under the superintendence of three
English boats ‘with bells in their noses and men with
weapons accordingly.’

The pretended intrigue of John Hawkins with the

1 Cf. Corbett, Drake , i. 114 n.

2 Cf. Pedro de Santillana’s poem of 1570 on De Luxan’s victory over
Hawkins, the poet’s ‘Juan Acle’ (cf. Duro, Armada invencible , ii. 490-501).

Introduction

xix

Spanish Government (vol. i. pp. 127-30) is famous not
only for itself, but for Lingard’s self-deception in the
matter. The whole was of course undertaken by ‘ Ackins,’
partly to feather his own nest, partly to rescue from
captivity some of his unfortunate men, marooned in the
Gulf of Mexico and now in Spanish prisons. The English
Council of State, so far from being ‘suspicious,’ were
cognisant of the whole throughout.

Jasper Campion’s Discourse of the trade to Scio , written
the 14th Feb. 1569 [1570] to Michael Lock and William
Winter? is a summary history of English commerce in
the Greek Archipelago during the middle of the sixteenth
century, from 1539 to 1570, and itself forms a part of the
history of our commerce in the Mediterranean. This trade
was prosecuted with great energy under the Tudors —
above all, under Elizabeth herself — and Hakluyt gives a
surprising number of documents relative to the same.
Like Francis I. of France, Elizabeth cultivated friendly,
and especially commercial, relations with the chief
Mohammedan states, notably the Ottoman Sultan and
the ‘Emperor’ of Morocco. By its subject-matter it is
connected with the narratives of Munday and Sanders,
immediately following, and with that of Roger Bodenham
at the beginning of this volume (see pp. 1-5, 131-8, 139-
15 1, 243-61).

Anthony Munday [A. M.J’s account2 of the Captivity
of John Fox of Woodridge, gunner of the Three Half
Moons , and of his escape from Alexandria, in which two
hundred and sixty-six Christian prisoners of the Turk also
participated (Jan. 3, 1577), is one of the most interesting

1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1599 (final edition).

a Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.

Voyages and Travels

narratives in Hakluyt, and remarkable as causing a
momentary softening of bitterness between Catholic and
Protestant : the Prior and Fathers of the Dominican Con¬
vent of Gallipoli, the Pope, and the King of Spain, all ex¬
erted themselves on Fox’s behalf ; he was granted a licence
to beg through the cities and towns of Spain ; and Philip II.
made him a gunner in the Valencia fleet of galleys.

Thomas Sanders’s report of the unfortunate voyage
of the Jesus to Tripoli in 1584 was first printed as a
separate tract on March 31, 1587 (see p. 243 of vol. i.) ;
two years later it was reprinted by Hakluyt in the first
edition of his Principal Navigations (1589).

From the Mediterranean, Elizabethan traders essayed
to push on by overland routes to India, just as others
were even now trying to reach the same goal by the
long sea route round Africa ; and the narratives of
Bodenham and Campion, Munday and Sanders, find their
continuation in those of Eldred, Newberie, and Fitch,
which trace the progress of the English pioneers to the
south-east, from the ports of Syria and Egypt to the
Persian Gulf, Ormuz, Malabar, and even Bengal and Pegu
(pp. 295-324 of this volume).

Thomas Stevens, the English Jesuit who afterwards did
so much for the release of Newberie and Fitch, when
arrested in Portuguese India, had the same objective as
they, but sought it by a different, longer, slightly speedier,
and infinitely less obstructible route. He was the first
Englishman known to Hakluyt as having reached the
Indian mainland by the Cape of Good Hope ; and his
letter1 of 1579 (see vol. i. pp. 152-9) from Goa to his father
and namesake is a premonition of such future developments

1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.

Introduction

xxi

as the London East Indian Company. Stevens was a
native of Wiltshire, who started for the East from Lisbon on
April 4, 1479, with the usual trumpets and Shooting of
ordnance,5 ‘ all in the manner of war,5 as the Portuguese were
wont to set out for India. His description of the maritime
routes inside and outside Madagascar (St. Lawrence Island)
was the most valuable part of his narrative for English
traders, statesmen, and explorers ; for the rest the Letter
is much more explicit on the birds and fish of the Southern
Seas than on people, products, or markets. The good Jesuit
in fact was a born naturalist. He has a little to say about
the Moors and Caffres of Ethiopia and the inhabitants of
Goa 1 tawny, but not disfigured in their lips and noses 5 like
the former : yet on the whole it is for descriptions of the
albatross, the shark, the pilot-fish, the sucker, and the
Medusa that the modern reader will value this report
John Chilton’s notable discourse1 (see vol. i. pp. 263-80)
concerning the memorable things of the West Indies, seen
and noted by himself during seventeen years of travel in
Mexico and the Islands of the Carribean Sea, is perhaps
the most valuable Elizabethan English account of these
regions. It refers to the third Hawkins voyage of 1567-8,
and to Drake’s voyage round the world of 1577-80, when
the great freebooter touched at Acapulco on the Pacific
coast of Mexico (see pp. 268-9) 1 but it has no direct con¬
nection with either of these expeditions. Its picture of
Spanish government in New Spain and of the distribution
of garrisons, its account of the trade regulations between the
colony and the mother-country, and its emphatic statement
of the discontent of the settlers and their eagerness for
greater freedom of commerce, are all worthy of notice.

1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.

XXII

Voyages and Travels

Thomas Cavendish or Candish was the only Englishman
of the Elizabethan time who successfully followed Drake
upon the path of Magellan, the circumnavigation of the
world. He started on July 21, 1586, upon his ‘ admirable and
prosperous journey into the South Sea, and thence round
about the whole earth,’ and returned on September 9,
1588, just after the ‘overthrowing of the Spanish fleet/
but this second English encircling of the globe was for the
most part a less eventful repetition of the first (see vol. i.
pp. 28 1 -94). 1 Cavendish was born in or about 1556, and
belonged to the Suffolk Cavendishes of Trimley St. Martin,
near Ipswich. Having squandered his property in ‘follow¬
ing the Court ’ and leading the life of a gallant, he became
a pirate to mend his fortune. His first naval venture was
in Sir Richard Grenville’s expedition for the planting of the
abortive Virginia Colony of 1585. He then followed
Grenville in a voyage of plunder and adventure in the
Atlantic.

On his return to England, Cavendish promptly set about
the organisation of a new expedition, this time for ‘the
South Sea and round about the globe.’ The fullest narra¬
tive of the voyage of 1 586-8 is that of Francis Pretty, given
in the final edition of Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (vol.
iii. pp. 803-25). To the account hereafter printed we may
add the following details. The Spanish settlements in
Magellan’s Straits visited and described by the English on
this venture were relics of the great expedition of twenty-
three sail which had been sent out from Seville in September
1581, as a direct consequent of Drake’s passage into the
Pacific, and as. a measure for preventing any similar aggres¬
sion by the south-west. The Armada was under Diego

1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.

Introduction

XXlll

Flores de Valdez as Admiral ; Pedro Sarmiento,one of Spain’s
truest heroes, was governor- designate of the intended colony.
Storms played havoc with the fleet ; only sixteen vessels
finally got off to Rio Janeiro ; and a start was not made from
Brazil until November 1582. De Valdez and Sarmiento,
after many bickerings, now finally quarrelled and parted,
De Valdez returning to Rio, where he picked up four rein¬
forcement ships that had been sent from Spain with supplies
for the colonists, and with their help made his way home
again. Sarmiento, driven back once and again by stress of
weather, at last made a successful start from the Brazil coast
on December 2, 1583, with five ships and five hundred and
thirty persons, reached Magellan’s Straits on February 1,
1584, and in spite of desertions planted four hundred men
and thirty women in two settlements — Nombre de Jesus and
San Felipe (miscalled King Philip’s town by the Cavendish
narratives). After Sarmiento’s departure the colony went
rapidly to ruin. ‘Their whole living for a great space’ (so
the English thought when they lighted upon the twenty-two
survivors1 on January 9, 1587) had been mussels and limpets,
eked out by an occasional bit of venison from deer that came
down ‘ out of the mountains to the fresh rivers to drink.’

During the two years they had been there, ‘ they could
never have anything to grow or in any wise prosper.’ The
Indians also often ‘preyed upon them,’ and ‘victuals grew
short, so that they died like dogs in their houses and in
their clothes, wherein we found them still at our coming.’
The town of San Felipe was so ‘wonderfully tainted with
the smell and savour of the dead,’ that the survivors for¬
sook it and made what living they could, rambling along
the shore, from roots, leaves, and any fowl they might kill.

1 The number is also given as twenty-three or twenty-four.

XXIV

Voyages and Travels

From among these outcasts Cavendish secured one
prisoner, Tom6 Hernandez, who succeeded in escaping
(March 30, 1587) near Valparaiso, ‘ notwithstanding all his
deep and damnable oaths that he would die on their side
before he would be false.’ The same man also planned an
ambuscade on the next day, in which twelve of the English
were cut off. At Guatulco or Aguatulco (Acapulco ; see
vol. i. p. 287), Cavendish is said to have burnt a church and
a great wooden cross, which some zealots believed St.
Andrew had planted there when he preached the faith to
the Mexican Aztees — a distant mission, unrecorded until
the discovery of America started a fresh growth of Apos¬
tolic legends. Cavendish smeared the cross with pitch
and heaped dry reeds around it ; for three days the fire
burnt, but at the end the holy sign was still scatheless.

After the capture1 of the treasure-galleon Santa Anna,
the division of the spoil offended the crew of the Content ,
who deserted in the night of the 20th November 1587, close
to Port Agua Secura, where the booty had been sorted,
appropriated, or destroyed. As the Hugh Gallant had been
sunk off Puna Island in the Gulf of Guayaquil, after the
‘regrettable incident’ of the ambuscade at that place (see
vol. i. p. 286), Cavendish’s fleet was now reduced to one
vessel, the Desire , his own flagship. The loss of the Content
(which was never seen again) was especially felt from the
fact that her captain, John Brewer, had accompanied Drake
round the world, and had been hitherto the chief guide and
pilot of the second English circumnavigation. His place,
however, was well supplied for some way by a pilot of the

1 The capture of the Santa Anna was greatly helped by the information
extracted from some prisoners — a Fleming and three Spaniards whom Caven¬
dish captured off the Chilian coast, and ‘tortured for news’ of the treasure
galleons and other things.

Introduction

xxv

Santa Anna , who took Cavendish as far as Capul in the
Philippines (Jan. 15, 1588). Here he tried to communicate
with the Spanish Governor of Manilla, and was hanged by
his captors for his plot.

By the help of this pilot, Brewer’s earlier guiding, and
Drake’s narratives, Cavendish finished his circuit of the
world in five months less than Sir Francis. Like Magellan,
he came to blows with the natives of the Ladrones, but appar¬
ently rather from a fierce weariness of their mercantile impor¬
tunity than from anger at their thievishness. During a nine
days’ stay at Capul the English mariners made observations
on the trade, natives, arts, and disposition of the Philippines,
which materially stimulated subsequent English voyages to
this Archipelago. For here, we were now told, lived men
‘of great genius and invention in handicrafts and sciences,
every one so expert in his faculty as few Christians are
able to go beyond them ’ ; and especially in ‘ drawing and
embroidery upon satin, silk or lawn, either beast, fowl, fish,
or worm, for liveliness and perfectness, both in silk, silver,
gold, and pearl.’ These paragons also promised Cavendish
(so Pretty reports) to aid him whenever he should come
again to overcome the Spaniards, and paid him a tribute of
pigs, poultry, cocoa-nuts, and potatoes. They were skilled
in the black art as well as in tattooing, and their inter¬
course with the devil was of the most pleasant and familiar
kind.

Near Manilla the Desire chased, but without success, a
Spanish vessel which had just put out : only one prisoner
was the result of the pursuit, and he was sent on shore
with ‘commendations’ to the Governor and his people,

‘ willing them to provide good store of gold, for they meant
to visit them again within four years.’ The rich commerce

xx vi Voyages and Travels

that met here from East and South Asia on one side, and
from the western littoral of America on the other, moved
the admiration of the visitors ; and to secure a share in
this Philippine wealth, and, if possible, the sole control of
it, soon became a prominent ambition of English commerce.
The political action of Cavendish here was a complement
to that of Drake in Ternate. Hurrying through the un¬
healthy Moluccas, where his men suffered severely from
the ‘ untemperate ’ climate, Cavendish made a stay of eleven
days in Java (March 5-16). The natives he thought the
bravest race in the south-east parts of the globe. Still more
opportunely for his political projects, he here fell in with
some Portuguese exiles who hoped to win for Don Antonio
‘ all the Moluccas at command, besides China, Ceylon, and
the Philippines/ to say nothing of all the Indians. Here
was a bright prospect for the English allies of Don Antonio
who might well hope to reap some profit out of a colonial
rising against Philip II.

In a rapid passage of two months and three days Caven¬
dish traversed the ‘ mighty and vast sea’ between Java and
the main of Africa, observing the ‘ heavens, stars, and fowls
—marks unto seamen ’ ; and almost as rapid was his voyage
in eighty-one days from St. Helena (where he repeated his
outrages upon the faith he detested, beating down the altar
and cross of the church, as Linschoten tells us) to the ‘ long-
wished-for port of Plymouth/

The narratives of Eldred, Fitch, and Newberie (already
referred to) are of much higher importance than seems
generally understood (see vol. i. pp. 295-332). They record
the first direct intercourse of the English nation, and
especially of its merchants, with India (1583-91) : they repre¬
sent to us the essential forward step to which the Central

Introduction

xxvii

Asiatic ventures of Anthony Jenkinson, Drake’s treaty with
the King of Ternate, and the isolated and, so to say, almost
accidental journey of Thomas Stevens, were preliminaries:
with them begins the British trade-empire in South Asia.
And in all our later history there is no process more in
evidence than the conversion of commercial into political
dominion. With the three above-named went two less-
known merchants, Leedes and Storey : all alike were sent
out by the joint-boards of the Levant and Muscovy Com¬
panies, and acted as accredited envoys from England to
the Great Mogul and the Son of Heaven, bearing letters
from Elizabeth to Akbar and the Emperor of China.
Primarily, however, they were sent out to prospect for
English commerce, conveying samples of our goods, especi¬
ally in cloth and tin, to Aleppo, Bagdad, Ormuz, and the
other markets of the Levant, and reporting home first and
foremost upon the markets, prices, and trade routes of
South-Western and Southern Asia.

It is noteworthy that we find in Newberie’s list of
nationalities then to be found trading at Goa, not only
French, Germans, and Italians, but even Hungarians and
Muscovites, among Christian peoples.

Of the whole party only Fitch returned to England to
report complete success in the mission for which he had
been sent out. Leedes entered the service of the Great
Akbar ; Storey joined the Church of Rome, and was
ordained a priest at Goa ; Newberie died in the Punjab on
his way home ; Eldred seems not to have gone beyond
Basrah — Bassora or Bussorah — at the head of the Persian
Gulf.

Who ever heard, says Hakluyt, of Englishmen at Goa
before? Who ever heard of the Indian trade, in the next

xxviii Voyages and Travels

generation, without some reference to the eager competi¬
tion of England in this traffic? The information given
to London merchants by the Newberie-Fitch group of
pioneers was undoubtedly one of the main guides to the
organised effort of the next decade, culminating in the
East India Company of 1600. Among other stimulants
we must not forget Linschoten’s great work (portions of
which are printed in vol. i. pp. 324-30, and vol. ii. pp. 1-126),
which give the most detailed account of the East Indies
and their trade-routes that had yet been supplied to the
Northern peoples of Europe. Nor must it be forgotten that
when Drake captured the great ‘ Portugal Carrack * (the San
Felipe) in 1587, off St. Michael in the Azores, there were
found in the prize papers which revealed many of the most
hidden secrets of the East Indian trade, papers to which,
before all else, contemporaries ascribed the formation of
our East India Company.

C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY.

Merton College, Oxford,

October %th, 1902.

Note. — On the influence of Fitch and his companions in the over¬
land East India journey of 1583 upon the formation and first measures
of the East India Company, some light is thrown by the earliest records
of the Company — e.g. (1) * 2nd Oct. 1600 : Ordered that Mr. Eldred and
Mr. Fitch shall in the meeting to-morrow morning confer of the mer¬
chandise fit to be provided for the voyage; (2) 31^ Dec. 1606; King
famed s letters to be obtained to the King of Cambay, the Governors of
Aden , etc. ; their titles to be inquired of R. Fitch!

On Drake’s Burburata, cp. also J. Blaeu, Atlas Novus , Amsterdam,
1650 (II. ii.), map of Venezuela cum parte australi Novae Andalusiae
[. Burburate , here.]

Captain Roger Bodenham.
Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d.

[Hakluyt’s Voyages , 1599.]

N the year 1550, the 13th of November, I Roger
Bodenham, Captain of the bark Aucher , entered
the said ship at Gravesend, for my voyage to the
islands of Candia and Scio in the Levant. The
master of my ship was one William Sherwood
From thence we departed to Tilbery Hope, and there remained
with contrary winds until the 6th of January 1551.

The 6th of January, the master came to Tilbery, and I had
provided a skilful pilot to carryover [past] Land’s End, whose
name was Master Wood. With all speed I vailed [dropped]
down that night ten miles, to take the tide in the morning :
which happily I did, and that night came to Dover and there
came to an anchor. There I remained until Friday [the
gth] : meeting with the worthy knight Sir Anthony Aucher,
owner of the said ship.

The nth day, we arrived at Plymouth. The 13th in the
morning, we set forward on our voyage with a prosperous
wind : and the 16th, we had sight of Cape Finisterre on the
coast of Spain.

The 30th, we arrived at Cadiz : and there discharged
certain merchandize, and took other aboard.

The 20th of February, we departed from Cadiz, and passed
the straits of Gibraltar that night ; and the 25th we came
to the isle of Majorca, and were stayed there five days with
contrary winds.

The 1st of March, we had sight of Sardinia, and the 5th
of the said month we arrived at Messina in Sicily; and there
discharged much goods, remaining there until Good Friday
in Lent [27th of March, 1551].

The chief merchant [in London] that laded the said bark

Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d. [Capt-

A ucher was a Merchant Stranger called Anselm Salvago ;
and because the time was then very dangerous, and that there
was no going into the Levant — especially to Scio — without a
safeconduct from the Turk: the said Anselm promised the
owner Sir Anthony Aucher that we should receive the
same at Messina. But I was posted from thence to Candia :
and there I was answered that I should send to Scio, and
there I should have my safeconduct. I was forced to send
one, and he had his answer “ that the Turk would give none,
willing me to look what was best for me to do : ” which was no
small trouble to me, considering that I was bound to deliver
the goods that were in the ship at Scio or send them at my
adventure [risk]. The merchants [supercargoes], without care
of the loss of the ship, would have compelled me to go or send
their goods at mine adventure. The which I denied, and
said plainly I would not go, because the Turk’s galleys were
come forth to go against Malta. But by the French king’s
means, he was persuaded to leave Malta, and to go to Tripoli
in Barbary : which by means of the French, he wan.

In this time there were in Candia certain Turkish vessels
called skyrasas, which had brought wheat thither to sell ;
and were ready to depart for Turkey. And they departed in
the morning betimes ; carrying news that I would not go
forth. That same night I had prepared beforehand what I
thought good, without making any man privy to it until I
saw time. Then I had no small business to cause my
mariners to venture with the ship in such a manifest danger.
Nevertheless I wan them all to go with me, except three
which I set on land ; and with all diligence I was ready to
set forth about eight o’clock at night, being a fair moonshine
night, and went out. Then my three mariners made such
requests unto the re.T of my men to come aboard, that I was
constrained to take them in.

So with a good wind we put into the Archipelago, and
being among the islands, the wind scanted [ fell away], and I
was forced to anchor at an island called Micone ; where I
tarried ten or twelve days ; having a Greek pilot to carry the
ship to Scio. In this mean season, there came many small
boats with mysson [mizeri] sails to go for Scio, with divers
goods to sell ; and the pilot requested me that I would let
them go in my company, to which I yielded.

Capt.R.BBodenham.j V0YAGE TO SdO IN 155 I A« D-

After the said days were expired, I weighed and set sail for
the island of Scio; with which place I fell in in the afternoon:
whereupon I cast [tacked] to seaward again to come with the
island in the morning betimes. The foresaid small vessels
which came in my company, departed from me to win the
shore to get in during the night : but upon a sudden they
espied three foists [light galleys] of Turks coming upon them to
spoil them. My pilot, having a son in one of those small
vessels, entreated me to cast about [wear] towards them ;
which at his request I did : and being somewhat far from
them, I caused my gunner to shoot a demi-culverin at a
foist that was ready to enter one of the boats. This was so
happy a shot that it made the Turk to fall astern of the boat
and to leave him : by the which means he escaped.

Then they all came to me, and requested that they might
hang at my stern until daylight : by which time, I came
before the mole of Scio, and sent my boat on land to the
merchants of that place to send for their goods out of hand
[ immediately] or else I would return back with all to Candia,
and they should fetch their goods from there. But in fine,
by what persuasion of my merchants, Englishmen, and of
those of Scio: I was entreated to come into the harbour:
and had a safe assurance for twenty days against the Turk’s
army, with a bond of the city in the sum of 12,000 ducats.
So I made haste and sold such goods as I had to the Turks
that came thither ; and put all in order with as much speed
as I could: fearing the coming of the Turk’s navy; of the
which, the chief of the city knew right well.

So upon the sudden, they called me of great friendship
and in secret told me, I had no way to save myself but to
be gone ; for said they, “ We are not able to defend you that
are not able to help ourselves. For the Turk, where he
cometh, taketh what he will and leaveth what he lists : but
the chief of the Turks set order that none shall do any harm
to the people or to their goods.” This was such news to me,
that indeed I was at my wits’ end ; and was brought into
many imaginations what to do : for the wind was contrary.
In fine, I determined to go forth.

But the merchants, Englishmen, and others, regarding
more their gains than the ship, hindered me very much
in my purpose of going forth : and made the mariners to

Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d. [Capt- R-BBeJ0dreen^;

come to me to demand their wages to be paid out of hand,
and to have a time to employ [spend] the same there. But
GOD provided so for me that I paid them their money that
night : and then charged them that if they would not set the
ship forth ; I would make them to answer the same in
England with danger of their heads. Many were married in
England and had somewhat to lose. These did stick to me.
I had twelve gunners. The Master Gunner, who was a mad¬
brained fellow, and the owner’s servant had a parliament
between themselves : and he, upon the same, came up to me
with his sword drawn ; swearing that he had promised the
owner, Sir Anthony Aucher, to live and die in the said ship
against all that should offer any harm to the ship, and that
he would fight with the whole army of the Turks, and never
yield. With this fellow I had much ado : but at the last I
made him confess his fault and follow my advice.

Thus with much labour I got out of the mole of Scio into
the sea, by warping forth ; with the help of Genoese boats, and
a French boat that was in the mole : and being out, GOD
sent me a special gale of wind to go my way. Then I caused
a piece to be shot off for some of my men that were yet in
the town, and with much ado they came aboard : and then I
set sail a little before one o’clock, and I made all the sail I
could.

About half past two o’clock there came seven galleys into
Scio to stay the ship, and the Admiral of them was in a great
rage because she was gone. Whereupon they put some of
the best [of the townsfolk] in prison ; and took all the men of
the three ships which I left in the port, and put them into
the galleys. The Turks would have followed after me ; but
that the townsmen found means that they did not. The next
day came thither an hundred more galleys, and there tarried
for their whole company, which being together, were about
250 sail ; taking their voyage to surprise the island of Malta.

The next day after I departed, I had sight of Candia : but
I was two days more ere I could get in : where I thought
myself out of their danger. There I continued until the
Turk’s army was past, which came within sight of the town.

There was preparation made as though the Turks would
have come thither. There are in that island of Candia
many banished men, that live continually in the mountains.

Capt. R^Bodenham.-] VOYAGE TO SdO IN I 55 I A.D.

They came down to serve, to the number of 4,000 or 5,000.
They are good archers. Every one was armed with his bow
and arrows, a sword and a dagger ; and had long hair, boots
that reached up to the groin, and a shirt of mail hanging, the
one half before, and the other half behind. These were sent
away again as soon as the army was past. They would
drink wine out of all measure.

Then the army being past, I ladened my ship with wines
and other things : and so, after I had that which I had left at
Scio, I departed for Messina. In the way, I found about
Zante, certain galliots of Turks laying aboard of certain
vessels of Venice laden with muscatels. I rescued them,
and had but a barrel of wine for my powder and shot.
Within a few days after, I came to Messina.

I had in my ship a Spanish pilot, called Nobiezia, which
I took in at Cadiz at my coming forth. He went with me
all this voyage into the Levant without wages, of goodwill
that he bare me and the ship. He stood me in good stead
until I came back again to Cadiz ; and then I needed no pilot.
And so from thence I came to London with the ship and
goods in safety : GOD be praised !

And all those mariners that were in my said ship — which
were, besides boys, threescore and ten — for the most part,
were within five or six years after, able to take charge of
ships, and did.

Richard Chancellor, who first discovered Russia, was
with me in that voyage ; and Matthew Baker, who
afterwards became the Queen’s Majesty’s Chief Shipwright.

Ro bert Tomson, of Andover, Merchant

V oyage to the West Indies and Mexico ,

1 5 5^ — 1 558, A.D.

[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]

That these Englishmen were allowed to go to New Spain at all was
probably one of the results of the marriage of Philip with Mary
Tudor. Blake, Field, and Tomson were probably the first
British islanders who reached the city of Mexico. This narrative
also gives us an account of the first auto-da-fe in that city.

8 Tomson stays a year at Seville, [r<

Obert Tomson, born in the town of
Andover, in Hampshire, began his travels
out of England in the month of March,
anno 1553 [i.e., 1554] ; who departing out of
the city of Bristol in company of other
merchants of the said city, in a good ship
called the bark Young, within eight days
after, arrived at Lisbon, at Portugal : where
the said Robert Tomson remained fifteen days. At the end
of which, he shipped himself for Spain in the said ship, and
within four days arrived in the bay of Cadiz in Andalusia, which
is under the kingdom of Spain : and from thence, travelled up
to the city of Seville by land, which is twenty leagues ; and
there, he repaired to the house of one John Field, an
English merchant who had dwelt in the said city of Seville
eighteen or twenty years married, with wife and children.
In whose house, the said Tomson remained by the space of
one whole year or thereabout, for two causes * the one, to
learn the Castilian tongue ; the other, to see the orders of
the country, and the customs of the people.

At the end of which time, having seen the fleets of ships
come out of the [West] Indies to that city, with such great
quantity of gold and silver, pearls, precious stones, sugar,
hides, ginger, and divers other rich commodities ; he did
determine with himself to seek means and opportunity to
pass over to see that rich country, from whence such a great
quantity of rich commodities came.

And it fell out, that within short time after, the said John
Field, where the said Tomson was lodged, did determine to
pass over into the West Indies himself, with his wife, chil¬
dren, and family: and, at the request of the said Tomson, he
purchased a license of the King, to pass into the Indies, for
himself, wife, and children; and among them, also, for the said
Tomson to pass with them. So that presently they made
preparation of victuals and other necessary provision for the
voyage. But the ships which were prepared to perform the
voyage being all ready to depart, were, upon certain con¬
siderations by the King’s commandment, stayed and arrested,
till further should be known of the King’s pleasure.

R- *■£»•] and then starts for Mexico.

Whereupon, the said John Field, with his company and
Robert Tomson (being departed out of Seville, and come
down to San Lucar de Barrameda, fifteen leagues off) seeing
the stay made upon the ships ot the said fleet, and not being
assured when they would depart, determined to ship them¬
selves for the isles of the Canaries, which are 250 leagues
from San Lucar, and there to stay till the said fleet should
come hither ; for that is continually their port to make stay
at, six or eight days, to take fresh water, bread, flesh, and
other necessaries.

So that in the month of February, in anno 1555, the said
Robert Tomson, with the said John Field and his com¬
pany, shipped themselves in a caravel of the city of Cadiz,
out of the town of San Lucar ; and within six days, they
arrived at the port of the Grand Canary : where at our
coming, the ships that rode in the said port began to cry out
of all measure, with loud voices ; insomuch that the Castle,
which stood fast by, began to shoot at us, and shot six or
eight shot at us, and struck down our mainmast before we
could hoist out our boat to go on land to know what the
cause of the shooting was; seeing that we were Spanish
ships, and coming into our country.

So that being on land, and complaining of the wrong and
damage done unto us; they answered that “they had thought
we had been French rovers, that had come into the said port
to do some harm to the ships that were there.” For that
eight days past, there went out of the said port a caravel
much like unto ours, ladened with sugars and other merchan¬
dise for Spain ; and on the other side of the Point of the
said island, met with a French Man of War: which took the
said caravel, and unladed out of her into the said French
ship, both men and goods. And it being demanded of the
said Spaniards, “ What other ships remained in the port
whence they came?”; they answered, “There remained
divers other ships, and one ladened with sugars as they
were, and ready to depart for Spain.” Upon the which
news, the Frenchmen put thirty tall men of their ship, well
appointed, into the said caravel that they had taken, and
sent her back again to the said port from whence she had
departed the day before.

Somewhat late towards evening, she came into port, not

io English Factors at the Canaries. [^T"011;^:

showing past thfee or four men • and so came to an anchor
hard by the other ships that were in the said port. Being
seen by the Castle and by the said ships, they made no
reckoning of her, because they knew her : and thinking that
she had found contrary winds at the sea, or having forgotten
something behind them, they had returned back again for the
same, they made no account of her, but let her alone riding
quietly among the other ships in the said port. So that
about midnight, the said caravel, with the Frenchmen in her,
went aboard [touched] the other ship that lay hard by, ladened
with sugars ; and driving the Spaniards that were in her
under the hatches, presently let slip her cables and anchors,
and set sail and carried her clean away : and after this sort,
deceived them. And they thinking or fearing that we were
the like, did shoot at us as they did.

This being past : the next day after our arrival in the said
port, we did unbark ourselves, and went on land up to the
city or head town of the Grand Canaria, where we remained
eighteen or twenty days ; and there found certain Englishmen,
merchants, servants of Anthony Hickman and Edward
Castelin, merchants in the city of London, that lay there
for traffic : of whom we received great courtesy and much
good cheer.

After the which twenty days being past, in which we had
seen the country, the people, and the disposition thereof; we
departed from thence, and passed to the next isle of the
Canaries, eighteen leagues off, called Teneriffe; and being
come on land, went up to the city called La Laguna : where
we remained seven months, attending the coming of the
whole fleet, which, in the end, came; and there having
taken that which they had need of, we shipped ourselves in a
ship of Cadiz, being one of the said fleet, belonging to an
Englishman married in the city of Cadiz in Spain, whose
name was John Sweeting. There came in the said ship as
Captain, an Englishman also, whose name was Leonard
Chilton, married in Cadiz, and son-in-law to the said John
Sweeting : and another Englishman also, whose name was
Ralph Sarre, came in the same ship, which had been a
merchant of the city of Exeter; one of fifty years of age or
thereabouts.

So that we departed from the said islands in the month of

R-“] Santo Domingo in 1555. 11

October, the foresaid year [1555], eight ships in our company,
and so directed our course towards the Bay of New Spain
[Gulf of Mexico ] ; and, by the way, towards the island ot
Santo Domingo, otherwise called Hispaniola: so that within
forty-two days [i.e., in December ] after we departed from the
said islands of Canaries, we arrived with our ship at the
port of Santo Domingo ; and went in over the bar, where our
ship knocked her keel at her entry. There our ship rid [rode]
before the town; where we went on land, and refreshed
ourselves sixteen days.

There we found no bread made of wheat, but biscuit
brought out of Spain, and out of the Bay of Mexico. For
the country itself doth yield no kind of grain to make bread
withal : but the bread they make there, is certain cakes made
of roots called cassavia; which is something substantial, but it
hath an unsavoury taste in the eating thereof. Flesh of beef
and mutton, they have great store ; for there are men that
have 10,000 head of cattle, of oxen, bulls, and kine, which
they do keep only for the hides : for the quantity of flesh is
so great, that they are not able to spend the hundredth part.
Of hog’s flesh is there good store, very sweet and savoury ;
and so wholesome that they give it to sick folks to eat,
instead of hens and capons : although they have good store of
poultry of that sort, as also of guinea cocks and guinea hens.

At the time of our being there, the city of Santo Domingo
was not of above 500 households of Spaniards : but of the
Indians dwelling in the suburbs, there were more. The
country is, most part of the year, very hot : and very full of
a kind of flies or gnats with long bills [mosquitos] , which do
prick and molest the people very much in the night when
they are asleep, in pricking their faces and hands and other
parts of their bodies that lie uncovered, and make them to
swell wonderfully. Also there is another kind of small worm,
which creepeth into the soles of men’s feet, and especially of
the Black Moors [Indians] and children which use to go
barefoot, and maketh their feet to grow as big as a man’s
head, and doth so ache that it would make one run mad.
They have no remedy for the same, but to open the flesh,
sometimes three or four inches, and so dig them out.

The country yieldeth great store of sugar, hides of oxen,
bulls and kine, ginger, cana fistula , and salsaparilla. Mines

i2 Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. [R-T°mson.

of silver and gold there are none ; but in some rivers, there
is found some small quantity of gold. The principal coin
that they do traffic withal in that place is black money, made
of copper and brass : and this they say they do use, not for
that they lack money of gold and silver to trade withal out
of the other parts of [West] India, but because, if they
should have good money, the merchants that deal with them
in trade would carry away their gold and silver, and let the
country commodities lie still. And thus much for Santo
Domingo. So we were, coming from the isles of Canaries
to Santo Domingo, and staying there, until the month of
December : which was three months.

About the beginning of January [1556], we departed thence
towards the Bay of Mexico and New Spain; towards which
we set our course, and so sailed twenty-four days, till we
came within fifteen leagues of San Juan de Ulua, which was
the port of Mexico of our right discharge.

And being so near our said port, there rose a storm of
northerly winds which came off from Terra Florida ; which
caused us to cast about into the sea again, for fear lest that
night we should be cast upon the shore before day did break,
and so put ourselves in danger of casting away. The wind
and sea grew so foul and strong, that, within two hours after
the storm began, nine ships that were together, were so
dispersed, that we could not see one another.

One of the ships of our company, being of the burden of
500 tons, called the “ Hulk of Carion,” would not cast about
to sea, as we did ; but went that night with the land :
thinking in the morning to purchase the port of San Juan
de Ulua; but missing the port, went with the shore, and was
cast away. There were drowned of that ship, seventy-five
persons, men, women, and children ; and sixty-four were saved
that could swim, and had means to save themselves. Among
those that perished in that ship, was a gentleman who had
been Pres[id]ent the year beforein Santo Domingo, his wife and
four daughters, with the rest of his servants and household.

We, with the other seven ships, cast about into the sea, the
storm [en]during ten days with great might, boisterous winds,
fogs, and rain. Our ship, being old and weak, was so tossed
that she opened at the stern a fathom under water, and the
best remedy we had was to stop it with beds and pilobiers

<“;] They abandon their sinking ship. 13

[? pillows for litters ] : and for fear of sinking we threw and
lightened into the sea all the goods we had, or could come
by ; but that would not serve.

Then we cut our mainmast, and threw all our ordnance
into the sea, saving one piece ; which, early in a morning,
when we thought we should have sunk, we shot off : and, as
it pleased GOD, there was one of the ships of our company
near unto us, which we saw not by means of the great fog;
which hearing the sound of the piece, and understanding
some of the company to be in great extremity, began to make
towards us, and when they came within hearing of us, we
desired them “ for the love of GOD ! to help to save us, for
that we were all like to perish !” They willed us “ to hoist
our foresail as much as we could, and make towards them ;
for they would do their best to save us ; ” and so we did.

And we had no sooner hoisted our foresail, but there came
a gale of wind ; and a piece of sea struck in the foresail, and
carried away sail and mast all overboard : so that then we
thought there was no hope of life. And then we began to
embrace one another, every man his friend, every wife her
husband, and the children their fathers and mothers ; com¬
mitting our souls to Almighty GOD, thinking never to escape
alive. Yet it pleased GOD, in the time of most need, when
all hope was past, to aid us with His helping hand, and
caused the wind a little to cease ; so that within two hours
after, the other ship was able to come aboard us, and took
into her, with her boat, man, woman and child, naked without
hose, or shoes upon many of our feet.

I do remember that the last person that came out of the
ship into the boat was a woman Black Moore [Indian] ; who
leaping out of the ship into the boat, with a young sucking
child in her arms, leapt too short, and fell into the sea, and
was a good while under the water before the boat could come
to rescue her : and, with the spreading of her clothes rose
above water again, and was caught by the coat and pulled
into the boat, having still her child under her arm, both of
them half drowned ; and yet her natural love towards her
child would not let her let the child go. And when she came
aboard the boat, she held her child so fast under her arm
still, that two men were scant able to get it out.

So we departed out of our ship, and left it in the sea. It

i4 They arrive at San Juan de Ulua. [rT0“X

was worth 400,000 ducats [= about £100,000 then = about
£900,000 now], ship and goods, when we left it.

Within three days after, we arrived at our port of San Juan
de Ulua, in New Spain.

I do remember that in the great and boisterous storm of
this foul weather, in the night there came upon the top of
our mainyard and mainmast, a certain little light, much like
unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called
the corpos sancto , and said “ It was Saint Elmo ” [ see Vol. II
p* 7 1 J whom they take to be the advocate of sailors. At which
sight, the Spaniards fell down upon their knees and wor¬
shipped it: praying GOD and Saint Elmo to cease the
torment, and save them from the peril they were in ; with
promising him that, on their coming on land, they would repair
unto his chapel, and there cause masses to be said, and other
ceremonies to be done. The friars [did] cast relics into the
sea, to cause the sea to be still, and likewise said Gospels,
with other crossings and ceremonies upon the sea to make
the storm to cease : which, as they said, did much good to
weaken the fury of the storm. But I could not perceive it,
nor gave any credit to it ; till it pleased GOD to send us the
remedy, and delivered us from the rage of the same. His
name be praised therefore !

This light continued aboard our ship about three hours,
flying from mast to mast, and from top to top ; and sometimes
it would be in two or three places at once. I informed myself
of learned men afterward, what this light should be ? and they
said that “ It was but a congelation of the wind and vapours
of the sea congealed with the extremity of the weather, and
so flying in the wind, many times doth chance to hit the
masts and shrouds of the ship that are at sea in foul weather.”
And, in truth, I do take it to be so : for that I have seen the
like in other ships at sea, and in sundry ships at once. By
this, men may see how the Papists are given to believe and
worship such vain things and toys as God ; to whom all
honour doth appertain : and in their need and necessities do
let [cease] to call upon the living GOD, who is the giver of
all good things.

The 16th of April in anno 1556, we arrived at the port of
San Juan de Ulua in New Spain, very naked and distressed
of apparel and all other things, by means of the loss of our

Noble generosity of a Spaniard.

foresaid ship and goods ; and from thence we went to the
new town called Vera Cruz, five leagues from the said port
of San Juan de Ulua, marching still by the sea shore : where
we found lying upon the sands a great quantity of mighty
great trees, with roots and all, some of them four, five, or six
cart load, by estimation ; which, as the people told us, were, in
the great stormy weather which we [en]dured at sea, rooted
out of the ground in Terra Florida right against that place
(which is 300 leagues over the sea), and brought thither.

So that we came to the said town of Vera Cruz ; where we
remained a month. There the said John Field chanced to
meet an old friend of his acquaintance in Spain, called
Gonzalo Ruiz de Cordova, a very rich man of the said
town of Vera Cruz; who (hearing of his coming thither,
with his wife and family ; and of his misfortune by sea) came
unto him, and received him and all his household into his
house, and kept us there a whole month, making us very
good cheer ; and giving us good entertainment, and also gave
us, that were in all eight persons, of the said J. Field’s
house, double apparel, new out of the shop, of very good
cloth, coats, cloaks, shirts, smocks, gowns for the women,
hose, shoes, and all other necessary apparel ; and for our
way up to the city of Mexico, horses, moyles [mules], and
men ; and money in our purses for the expenses by the way,
which by our account might amount unto the sum of 400
crowns [=£120 then = about £1,000 now].

After we were entered two days’ journey into the country,
I, the said Robert Tomson, fell sick of an ague : so that the
next day I was not able to sit on my horse ; but was fain to
be carried upon Indians’ backs from thence to Mexico.

And when we came within half a day’s journey of the city
of Mexico, the said John Field also fell sick; and within
three days after we arrived at the said city, he died. And
presently sickened one of his children, and two more of his
household people ; who within eight days died. So that
within ten days after we arrived at the city of Mexico,
of eight persons that were of us of the said company, there
remained but four of us alive : and I, the said Tomson, at
the point of death, of the sickness that I got on the way,
which continued with me for the space of six months [till
October 1556]. At the end of which time, it pleased GOD

1 6 The City of Mexico in 1556. [E-

to restore me my health again, though weak and greatly
disabled.

Mexico was a city, in my time, of not above 1,500 house¬
holds of Spaniards inhabiting there ; but of Indian people in
the suburbs of the said city, there dwelt about 300,000 as it was
thought, and many more. This city of Mexico is sixty-five
leagues from the North Sea [the Gulf of Mexico ] and seventy-
five leagues from the South Sea [the Pacific Ocean ] ; so that it
standeth in the midst of the main land, betwixt the one sea
and the other.

It is situated in the midst of a lake of standing water, and
surrounded round about with the same ; save, in many places,
going out of the city, are many broad ways through the said
lake or water. This lake and city are surrounded also with
great mountains round about, which are in compass above
thirty leagues ; and the said city and lake of standing water
doth stand in a great plain in the midst of it. This lake of
standing water doth proceed from the shedding of the rain,
that falleth upon the said mountains ; and so gathers itself
together in this place.

All the whole proportion of this city doth stand in a very
plain ground ; and in the midst of the said city^ is a square
Place, of a good bow shot over from side to side. In the
midst of the said Place is a high Church, very fair and well
built all through, but at that time not half finished.

Round about the said Place, are many fair houses built.
On the one side are the houses where Montezuma, the
great King of Mexico that was, dwelt ; and now there lie
always the Viceroys that .the King of Spain sendeth thither
every three years: and in my time there was for Viceroy a
gentleman of Castille, called Don Luis de Velasco.

And on the other side of the said Place, over against the
same, is the Bishop’s house, very fairly built ; and many ether
houses of goodly building. And hard by the same are also
other very fair houses, built by the Marquis de la Valle,
otherwise called Hernando Cortes ; who was he that first
conquered the said city and country. After the said con¬
quest (which he made with great labour and travail of his
person, and danger of his life), being grown great in the
country; the King of Spain sent for him, saying that he had

R?ToTs87‘] Thegreatbuildinginpro GRESS. I 7

some particular matters to impart to him : and, when he
came home, he could not be suffered to return back again, as
the King before had promised him. With the sorrow for
which, he died : and this he had for the reward of his good
service.

The said city of Mexico hath streets made very broad and
right [straight] that a man being in the highway at one end
of the street, may see at the least a good mile forward : and
in all the one part of the streets of the north part of their
city, there runneth a pretty lake of very clear water, that
every man may put into his house as much as he will, with¬
out the cost of anything but of the letting in.

Also there is a great ditch of water that cometh through
the city, even into the high Place ; where come, every morn¬
ing, at break of the day, twenty or thirty canoes or troughs
of the Indians ; which bring in them all manner of provisions
for the city that is made and groweth in the country : which
is a very good commodity for the inhabitants of that place.
And as for victuals in the said city, beef, mutton, hens, capons,
quails, guinea cocks, and such like, are all very good cheap;
as the whole quarter of an ox, as much as a slave can carry
away from the butcher’s, for five tomynes, that is, five rials
of plate [ i.e ., of silver. See Vol. I. p. 320; Vol. II. p. 8], which
is just 2s. 6d. [ — £1 5^. o d. now]’, and fat sheep at the
butcher’s, for three rials, which is is. 6d. [—12s. 6d. now], and
no more. Bread is as good cheap as in Spain ; and all other
kinds of fruits, as apples, pears, pomegranates, and quinces,
at a reasonable rate.

The city goeth wonderfully forward in building of Friaries
and Nunneries, and Chapels ; and is like, in time to come, to
be the most populous city in the world, as it may be sup¬
posed.

The weather is there always very temperate. The day dif-
fereth but one hour of length all the year long. The fields and
woods are always green. The woods are full of popinjays,
apd many other kind of birds, that make such a harmony of
singing and crying, that any man will rejoice to hear it. In
the fields are such odoriferous smells of flowers and herbs,
that it giveth great content to the senses.

In my time, were dwelling and alive in Mexico, many
ancient men that were of the Conquerors, at the first con-

i. B 4

18 Tomson serves Gonzalo Serezo. [r,,t®5J

quest with Hernando Cortes : for, then, it was about
thirty-six years ago, that the said country was conquered.

Being something strong, I procured to seek means to live,
and to seek a way how to profit myself in the country seeing
it had pleased GOD to send us thither in safety.

Then, by the friendship of one Thomas Blake, a Scottish-
man born, who had dwelt, and had been married in the said
city above twenty years before I came to the said city [i.e.,
before 1536], I was preferred to the service of a gentleman, a
Spaniard dwelling there, a man of great wealth, and of one of
the first conquerors of the said city, whose namewas Gonzalo
Serezo : with whom I dwelt twelve months and a half [i.e.,
up to November 1557] ; at the end of which, I was maliciously
accused by the Holy House for matters of religion.

And because it shall be known wherefore it was, that I
was so punished by the clergy’s hand ; I will in brief words,
declare the same.

It is so, that, being in Mexico, at table, among many
principal people at dinner, they began to inquire of me, being
an Englishman, “ Whether it were true that in England,
they had overthrown all their Churches and Houses of Re¬
ligion ; and that all the images of the saints of heaven that
were in them, were thrown down and broken, and burned,
and [that they] in some places stoned highways with them ;
and [that they] denied their obedience to the Pope of Rome :
as they had been certified out of Spain by their friends ? ”

To whom, I made answer, “That it was so. That, in
deed, they had in England, put down all the religious houses
of friars and monks that were in England ; and the images
that were in their churches and other places were taken
away, and used there no more. For that, as they say, the
making of them, and the putting of them where they were
adored, was clean contrary to the express commandment of
Almighty GOD, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven
image &c, : and that, for that cause, they thought it not
lawful that they should stand in the church, which is, the
House of Adoration.”

One that was at the declaring of these words, who was my
master, Gonzalo Serezo, answered and said, “ If it were
against the commandment of GOD, to have images in the

R'?roTs87*] Table Talk in Mexico in Nov. 1557. 19

churches ; that then he had spent a great deal of money in
vain ; for that, two years past [i.e., in 1555] he had made in
the Monastery of Santo Domingo in the said city of Mexico,
an image of Our Lady, of pure silver and gold, with pearls
and precious stones, which cost him 7,000 and odd pesos ”
(and every peso is 6s. 8d. of our money) [ = about ,£2,400, or
about £24,000 now ] : which indeed was true, for I have seen
it many times myself where it stands.

At the table was another gentleman, who, presuming to
defend the cause more than any one that was there, said,
“ That they knew well enough, that they were made but of
stocks and stones, and that to them was no worship given ;
but that there was a certain veneration due unto them after
they were set up in church : and that they were set there with
a good intent. The one, for that they were Books for the
Simple People, to make them understand the glory of the
saints that were in heaven, and a shape of them ; to put us
in remembrance to call upon them to be our intercessors unto
GOD for us : for that we are such miserable sinners that we
are not worthy to appear before GOD ; and that using devo¬
tion to saints in heaven, they may obtain at GOD’s hands,
the sooner, the thing that we demand of Him. As, for
example,” he said, “imagine that a subject hath offended his
King upon the earth in any kind of respect ; is it for the
party to go boldly to the King in person, and to demand
pardon for his offences? No,” said he, “the presumption
were too great ; and possibly he might be repulsed, and have
a great rebuke for his labour. Better it is for such a person
to seek some private man near the King in his Court, and to
make him acquainted with this matter, and let him be a
mediator to His Majesty for him and for the matter he had to
do with him ; and so might he the better come to his purpose,
and obtain the thing which he doth demand. Even so,”
saith he, “ it is with GOD and His saints in heaven. For
we are wretched sinners ; and not worthy to appear or
present ourselves before the Majesty of GOD, to demand of
Him the thing that we have need of : therefore thou hast
need to be devout ! and have devotion to the mother of God,
and the saints in heaven, to be intercessors to GOD for thee !
and so mayest thou the better obtain of GOD, the thing that
thou dost demand ! ”

20 The dangerous talk is stopped. [rT“

To this I answered, “ Sir, as touching the comparison you
made of the intercessors to the King, how necessary they were,
I would but ask of you this question. Set the case, that this
King you speak of, if he be so merciful as when he knoweth
that one or any of his subjects hath offended him ; he send
for him to his own town, or to his own house or place, and
say unto him, 4 Come hither ! I know that thou hast offended
many laws ! if thou dost know thereof, and dost repent thee
of the same, with full intent to offend no more, I will forgive
thee thy trespass, and remember it no more ! ’ ” Said I, “ If
this be done by the King’s own person, what then hath this
man need go and seek friendship at any of the King’s private
servants’ hands ; but go to the principal : seeing that he is
readier to forgive thee, than thou art to demand forgiveness
at his hands ! ”

“ Even so is it, with our gracious GOD, who calleth and
crieth out unto us throughout all the world, by the mouth of
His prophets and apostles ; and, by His own mouth, saith,
* Come unto me all ye that labour and are over laden, and I
will refresh you ! ’ besides a thousand other offers and
proffers, which He doth make unto us in His Holy Scriptures.
What then have we need of the saints’ help that are in
heaven, whereas the LORD Himself doth so freely offer
Himself for us ? ”

At which sayings, many of the hearers were astonied, and
said that, “ By that reason, I would give to understand
that the Invocation of Saints was to be disannulled, and by
the laws of GOD not commanded.”

I answered, “That they were not my words, but the words
of GOD Himself. Look into the Scriptures yourself, and you
shall so find it ! ”

The talk was perceived to be prejudicial to the Romish
doctrine ; and therefore it was commanded to be no more
entreated of. And all remained unthought upon, had it not
been for a villainous Portuguese that was in the company,
who said, Basta ser Ingles para saber todo esto y mas, who, the
next day, without imparting anything to anybody, went to the
Bishop of Mexico and his Provisor, and said, that “ In a
place where he had been the day before was an Englishman,
who had said that there was no need of Saints in the Church , nor
of any Invocation of Saints. Upon whose denomination [de-

R. Tomson.j JoMSON IN PRISON SEVEN MONTHS. 21

nouncement], I was apprehended for the same words here re¬
hearsed, and none other thing ; and thereupon was used as
hereafter is written.

So, apprehended, I was carried to prison, where I lay a
close prisoner seven months [till July 1558], without speaking
to any creature, but to the gaoler that kept the said prison,
when he brought me my meat and drink. In the meantime,
was brought into the said prison, one Augustine Boacio, an
Italian of Genoa, also for matters of religion ; who was taken
at Zacatecas, eighty leagues to the north-westward of the city
of Mexico.

At the end of the said seven months [i.e., in July 1558], we
were both carried to the high Church of Mexico, to do an
open penance upon a high scaffold made before the high altar,
upon a Sunday, in the presence of a very great number of
people ; who were, at least, 5,000 or 6,000. For there were
some that came one hundred miles off to see the said auto,
as they call it ; for that there was never any before, that had
done the like in the said country : nor could tell what
Lutherans were, nor what it meant ; for they never heard of
any such thing before.

We were brought into the Church, every one with a san benito
upon his back ; which is, half a yard of yellow cloth, with a
hole to put in a man’s head in the midst, and cast over a
man’s head : both flaps hang, one before, and another behind ;
and in the midst of every flap a Saint Andrew’s cross, made
of red cloth, and sewed in upon the same. And that is called
San Benito.

The common people, before they saw the penitents come
into the Church, were given to understand that we were
heretics, infidels, and people that did despise GOD and His
works, and that we had been more like devils than men ; and
thought we had had the favour [appearance] of some monsters
or heathen people : and when they saw us come into the
Church in our players’ coats, the women and children began
to cry out and made such a noise, that it was strange to
hear and see ; saying, that “ They never saw goodlier men
in all their lives ; and that it was not possible that there
could be in us so much evil as was reported of us ; and
that we were more like angels among men, than such
persons of such evil religion as by the priests and friars, we

22 Tomson sentenced in Mexico, is in prison [r- ?To^;

were reported to be ; and that it was a great pity that we
should be so used for so small an offence. ”

So that we were brought into the said high Church, and set
upon the scaffold which was made before the high altar, in
the presence of all the people, until High Mass was done; and
the Sermon made by a friar concerning our matter: put¬
ting us in all the disgrace they could, to cause the people not
to take so much compassion upon us, for that “ we were
heretics, and people seduced of the Devil, and had forsaken
the faith of the Catholic Church of Rome ” ; with divers other
reproachful words, which were too long to recite in this place.

High Mass and Sermon being done ; our offences (as they
called them) were recited, each man what he had said and
done : and presently was the sentence pronounced against us,
that was that —

The said Augustine Boacio was condemned to wear
his San Benito all the days of his life, and put into per¬
petual prison, where he should fulfil the same ; and all
his goods confiscated and lost.

And I, the said Tomson, to wear the San Benito for
three years ; and then to be set at liberty.

And for the accomplishing of this sentence or condem¬
nation, we must be presently sent down from Mexico to
Vera Cruz, and from thence to San Juan de Ulua, which
was sixty-five leagues by land; and there to be shipped
for Spain, with straight commandment that, upon pain
of 1,000 ducats, every one of the Masters should look
straightly unto us, and carry us to Spain, and deliver us
unto the Inquisitors of the Holy House of Seville ; that
they should put us in the places, where we should fulfil
our penances that the Archbishop of Mexico had en¬
joined unto us, by his sentence there given.

For the performance of the which, we were sent down
from Mexico to the seaside, with fetters upon our feet ; and
there delivered to the Masters of the ships to be carried for
Spain, as is before said.

And it was so, that the Italian fearing that if he presented
himself in Spain before the Inquisitors, that they would have
burnt him ; to prevent that danger, when we were coming
homeward, and were arrived at the island of Terceira, one of
the isles of Azores, the first night that we came to an anchor

Rf07s°8?:] IN Seville; then marries well. 23

in the said port [ix., of Angra ], about midnight, he found
the means to get him naked out of the ship into the sea, and
swam naked ashore ; and so presently got him to the further
side of the island, where he found a little caravel ready to
depart for Portugal. In the which he came to Lisbon ; and
passed into France, and so into England; where he ended his
life in the city of London.

And I, for my part, kept still aboard the ship, and came
into Spain ; and was delivered to the Inquisitors of the Holy
House of Seville, where they kept me in close prison till I
had fulfilled the three years of my penance, [ix., till about
1561J.

Which time being expired, I was freely put out of prison,
and set at liberty.

Being in the city of Seville, a cashier of one Hugh Typton,
an English merchant of great doing, by the space of one year
| ~i.e., till about 1562] ; it fortuned that there came out of the
city of Mexico, a Spaniard, Juan de la Barrera, that had
been long time in the Indies, and had got great sums of gold
and silver. He, with one only daughter, shipped himself for
to come to Spain ; and, by the way, chanced to die, and gave
all that he had unto his only daughter, whose name was
Maria de la Barrera.

She having arrived at the city of Seville, it was my chance
to marry with her. The marriage was worth to me £2,500
[=£25,000 now ] in bars of gold and silver, besides jewels of
great price. This I thought good to speak of, to show the
goodness of GOD to all them that trust in Him ; that I, being
brought out of the Indies in such great misery and infamy
to the world, should be provided at GOD’s hand, in one mo¬
ment, of more than in all my life before, I could attain unto
by my own labour.

After we departed from Mexico, our San Benitos were set
up in the high Church of the said city, with our names written
in the same, according to their use and custom ; which is and
will be a monument and a remembrance of us, as long as the
Romish Church doth reign in that country. The same have
been seen since, by one John Chilton ; and divers others of
our nation, which were left in that country, long since [ ix .,
in October 1568] by Sir John Hawkins.

Ill

Roger Bodenham’s

Trip to Mexico

L1 564-5].

2 7

Master Roger Bodenham.
! Trip to Mexico , 1564-1565, a.d.

[Probably the same man as went to Scio in 1 551.]

[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]

, Roger Bodenham, having lived a long time in the
city of Seville, in Spain, being there married : and
by occasion thereof, using trade and traffic to the
parts of Barbary ; I grew, at length, to great loss
and hinderance by that new trade, begun by me, in
the city of Fez.

Whereupon, being returned into Spain, I began to call my
wits about me, and to consider with myself by what means I
might recover and renew my state : and, in conclusion, by the
aid of my friends, I procured a ship, called the bark Fox ,
pertaining to London, of the burden of 160 or 180 tons ; and
with the same, I made ^ voyage to West India ; having
obtained good favour with the Spanish merchants, by reason
of my long abode and marriage in the country.

My voyage was in the company of the General [Admiral]
Don Pedro Melendez, for New Spain : who being himself
appointed General for Tierra Firma and Peru, made his son
our General for New Spain; although Pedro Melendez
himself was the principal man and director in both fleets.

We all departed from Gales together, the 31st day of May,
in the year 1564.

And I, with my ship, being under the conduct of the son of
Don Pedro aforesaid, arrived with him in New Spain ; where,
immediately, I took order for the discharge of my merchan¬
dise at the port of Vera Cruz, otherwise called Villa Ricca : to
6e transported thence, to the city of Mexico ; which is seventy
and odd leagues from the said port of Villa Rica. In the
way are many good towns, as Pueblo de los Angelos, and
another called Tlaxcalan.

The city of Mexico hath three great cause[wa]ys to bring
men to it: and is compassed with a lake, so that it needeth

28 Cochineal, 3s. 40. the lb. fR- Eofnham

no walls, being so defended with water. It is a city plenti¬
ful of all necessary things, having many fair houses, churches,
and monasteries.

I, having continued in the country the space of nine months,
returned again to Spain with the Spanish Fleet; and delivered
the merchandise and silver which I had in the ship, into
the Contraction House [at Seville] ; and there received my
freight, which amounted, outwards and homewards, to the
value of 13,000 ducats and more [ — about £3,600 =about
£30,000 now].

I observed many things, in the time of my abode in New
Spain, as well touching the commodities of the country as the
manners of the people, both Spaniards and Indians ; but
because the Spanish histories are full of those observations,
I omit them, and refer the readers to the same.

Only this I say, that the commodity of cochineal groweth
in greatest abundance about the town of Puebla de los
Angelos ; and is not worth there, above forty pence the pound.

Rev. Richard Hakluyt.

Sir Jo h n Ha wkin ss First V oyage to the
JVest Indies , Oct. i 562- Sept. 1563, a.d.

This and the two subsequent Voyages of Sir John Hawkins were
the first initiation of the English into the African slave trade.

While the primary object of these voyages was Traffic : the secondary
one was Discovery ; to find out those West Indian coasts which the
Spaniards had hitherto kept so secret. Notice how each successive
expedition penetrated further and further towards the Gulf of Mexico.

It should also be remembered that, at the time of these Voyages,
Hawkins had not been knighted, and was simply an Esquire.]

[ Voyages . 1589.]

The first Voyage of the right worshipful and valiant Knight,
Sir John Hawkins (now [i.e., in 1589] Treasurer of Her
Majesty’s Royal Navy), made to the West Indies.

| Aster John Hawkins having made divers voyages
to the Isles of the Canaries ; and there, by his good
and upright dealing, being grown in love and
favour with the people, informed himself amongst
them, by diligent inquisition, of the state of the
West India : whereof he had received some knowledge by
the instructions of his father; but increased the same, by the
advertisements and reports of that people.

And being, amongst other particulars, assured that Negroes
were very good merchandise in Hispaniola ; and that store of
Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea ; he re¬
solved with himself to make trial thereof : and communicated

that device with his worshipful friends in London, namely,
with Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, Master
Gunston his father-in-law, Sir William Winter, Master
Bromfield, and others. All which persons liked so well of
his intention, that they became liberal Contributors and
Adventurers in the action.

For which purpose, there were three good ships imme¬
diately provided, the one called the Solomon , of the burthen

30 The First Voyage is to Hispaniola only. [R,?HakIIs8y9l.

of 120 tons, wherein Master Hawkins himself went as General
\i.e ., Admiral] ; the second, the Swallow , of ioo tons, wherein
went for Captain, Master Thomas Hampton ; and the third,
the Jonas , a bark of 40 tons, wherein the Master supplied
the Captain’s room. In which small fleet, Master Hawkins
took with him not above a hundred men, for fear of sickness
and other inconveniences, whereunto men in long voyages
are commonly subject.

With which company, he put off and departed from the
coast of England, in the month of October, 1562 ; and in his
course, touched first at Teneriffe, where he received friendly
entertainment. From thence, he passed to Sierra Leone, upon
the coast of Guinea ; which place, by the people of the country
is called Tagarin ; where he stayed some good time, and got
into his possession, partly by the sword, and partly by other
means, to the number of three hundred Negroes, at the least ;
besides other merchandise which that country yieldeth.

With this prey, he sailed over the ocean sea unto the
island of Hispaniola, and arrived first at the port of Isabella;
and there he had reasonable utterance of his English Com¬
modities, as also of some part of his Negroes : trusting the
Spaniards no further than that, by his own strength, he was
able still to master them.

From the port of Isabella, he went to Porte de Plata,
where he made like sales : standing always upon his guard.

From thence also, he sailed to Monte Christi, another port
on the north side of Hispaniola ; and the last place of his
touching : where he had peaceable traffic, and made vent of
the whole number of his Negroes.

For which he received, in those three places, by way of ex¬
change, such a quantity of merchandise, that he did not only
lade his own three ships with hides, ginger, sugar, and some
quantity of pearls ; but he freighted also two other Hulks with
hides and other like commodities, which he sent into Spain.

And thus leaving the island, he returned and disimboked
[disembogued, i.e., went out into the main ocean], passing by the
islands of the Caicos, without further entering into the Bay
of Mexico, in this his First Voyage to the West India.

And so, with prosperous success, and much gain to himself
and the aforesaid Adventurers, he came home, and arrived in
the month of September, 1563.

A Gentleman in the Voyage.

Sir John Ha whins' s Second
Z7 oyage to the ZZ7 est Indies ;
i 8/A Oct., 1564 — 20 th Sept., 1565.

[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]

[There are six stages in this Voyage :

OUTWARDS.

18 Oct. — 29 Nov. 1564. Plymouth, to Cape cle Verde ... ftp. 32-37
29 Nov. 1564 — 19 Jan. 1565. Along the Guinea coast ... ftft.yj- 46

19 Jan. — 9 March 1565. Guinea coast to the W. I . p. 46

9 Mar. — 31 May 1565. Along the North coast of South

America, to Rio de la Hacha ... ftp. 46-62

HOME WARDS.

31 May — 28 July 1565. Rio de la Hacha, to River of May,

Florida . ftp. 62-79

28 July — 20 Sept. 1565. Florida, to Padstow in Cornwall ftp. 79-80]

The Voyage made by the Worshipful Master John Hawkins,
Esquire, now Knight ; Captain of the Jesus of Lubeck,
one of Her Majesty’s ships: and General [Admiral] of
the Solomon , and other two [vessels] barks, going in his
company to the coast of Guinea, and the Indies of New
Spain; being in Africa and America. Began in Anno
Domini , 1564.

The names of certain Gentlemen that were in this Voyage.
Master John Hawkins.

Master John Chester, Sir William
Chester’s son.

Master Anthony Parkhurst.

Master Fitzwilliam.

Master Thomas Woorley.

Master Edward Lacie. With divers others.

32 Departure of the Second Expedition, [ ? ?is6s.

V The Register [i.e., the Log of the various dates] and
true accounts of all herein expressed hath been approved by me ,
John Sparke the younger ; who went upon the same Voyage ,
and wrote the same [i.e., kept a journal of these transactions].

01th the Jesus of Lubeck, a ship of 700 tons ; and the
Solomon , a ship of 140 ; the Tiger , a bark of 50 ;
and the Swallow, of 50 tons ; being all well fur¬
nished with men to the number of 170, as also
with ordnance and victuals requisite for such a
Voyage; Master John Hawkins departed out of Plymouth,
the 18th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1564, with
a prosperous wind.

At which departing, in cutting of the foresail, a marvellous
misfortune happened to one of the Officers in the ship ; who
by the pulley of the sheet, was slain out of hand : being a
sorrowful beginning to them all.

And after their setting out ten leagues to the sea, he met,
the same day, with the Minion , a ship of the Queen’s Majesty,
whereof was Captain David Carlet, and also her consort,
the John Baptist of London; being bound to Guinea also :
who hailed one the other, after the custom of the sea, with
certain pieces of ordnance, for joy of their meeting. Which
done, the Minion departed from him, to seek her other con¬
sort, the Merlin of London, which was astern, out of sight ;
leaving in Master Hawkins’s company, the John Baptist , her
other consort.

Thus sailing forwards on their way, with a prosperous
wind, until the 21st of the same month ; at that time, a great
storm arose, the wind being at north-east, about nine o’clock
in the night, and so continued twenty-three hours together.
In which storm, Master Hawkins lost the company of the
John Baptist aforesaid, and of his pinnace called the Swallow :
his other three ships being sore beaten with the storm.

The 23rd day, the Swallow, to his no small rejoicing, came
to him again in the night, ten leagues to the northward
of Cape Finisterre : he having put roomer [gone out to sea ] ;
not being able to double the Cape, in that there rose a
contrary wind at south-west.

The 25th, the wind continuing contrary, he put into a

? ?I56s<] and its Sailing Orders. 33

place in Galicia, called Ferrol ; where he remained five days,
and appointed all the Masters of his ships an Order for keep¬
ing of good company, in this manner.

The small ships to be always ahead and aweather of
the Jesus : and to speak, twice a day, with the Jesus at
least.

If in the day, the ensign to be over the poop of the
Jesus ; or in the night, two lights : then shall all the
ships speak with her.

If there be three lights aboard the Jesus, then doth
she cast about.

If the weather be extreme, that the small ships
cannot keep company with the Jesus , then all to keep
company with the Solomon : and forthwith to repair to
the island of Teneriffe, to the northward of the road of
Sirroes.

If any happen to any misfortune ; then to shew two
lights, and to shoot off a piece of ordnance.

If any lose company, and come in sight again ; to
make three yaws [? veerings of the ship ] and strike [lower]
the misen [i.e., the misen sail ] three times.

Serve GOD daily! [i.e., have daily prayers], love one
another ! preserve your victuals ! beware of fire 1 and
keep good company [i.e., of the fleet together].

The 26th day, the Minion came in also, where he was : for
the rejoicing whereof, he gave them [volleys from] certain
pieces of ordnance, after the courtesy of the sea, for their wel¬
come. But the Minion' s men had no mirth, because of their
consort, the Merlin : which, after their departure from Master
Hawkins upon the coast of England, they went to seek ; and
having met with her, kept company two days together. At
last, by the misfortune of fire, through the negligence of one
of their Gunners, the powder in the Gunner’s Room was set
on fire : which, with the first blast, struck out her poop, and
therewithal lost three men : besides many sore burned, which
escaped by the brigantine [i.e., the Minion ; apparently the
ship of the same name in the Third Voyage] being at her stern :
and, immediately, to the great loss of the owners, and most
horrible sight to the beholders, she sank before their eyes.

The 30th day of the month, Master Hawkins, with his
1. c 4

34 Arrival at Teneriffe, and [? ?ls6s

consorts, and [the] company of the Minion ; [the^sws] having
now both the brigantines [the Solomon and the Minion ]
at her stern, weighed anchor, and set sail on her voyage ;
having a prosperous wind thereunto.

The 4th of November, they had sight of the island of
Madeira ; and the 6th day, of Teneriffe, which they thought
to have been the [Grand] Canary, in that they supposed
themselves to have been to the eastward of Teneriffe; and
were not. But the Minion , being three or four leagues
ahead of us, kept on her course to Teneriffe ; having a better
sight thereof, than the others had: and by that means, they
parted company.

For Master Hawkins and his company went more to the
West. Upon which course, having sailed a while, he espied
another island, which he thought to be Teneriffe : and being
not able, by means of the fog upon the hills, to discern the
same, nor yet to fetch it by night ; he went roomer until
the morning, being the 7th of November. Which, as yet, he
could not discern, but sailed along the coast the space of
two hours, to perceive some certain mark of Teneriffe; and
found no likelihood thereof at all, accounting that to be (as it
was indeed) the isle of Palms [Palmas],

So sailing forwards, he espied another island called Gomera;
and also Teneriffe, with which he made : and, sailing all
night, came in the morning, the next day, to the port of
Adecia ; where he found his pinnace, which had departed
[; separated ] from him the 6th of the month, being in the
weather of him, and espying the Pike of Teneriffe all a high,
bare thither.

At his arrival, somewhat before he came to anchor, he
hoisted out his ship’s pinnace, rowing ashore ; intending to
have sent one with a letter to Peter de Ponte, one of
the Governors of the island, who dwelt a league from the
shore : but as he pretended [intended] to have landed, sud¬
denly there appeared upon the two points of the road, men
levelling of bases and harquebusses to them, with divers
others with halberts, pikes, swords, and targets, to the
number of four score : which happened so contrary to his
expectation, that it did greatly amaze him ; and the more,
because he was now in their danger, not knowing well how
to avoid it without some mischief.

? ?Is6sJ HOSPITABLE ENTERTAINMENT THERE. 35

Wherefore, he determined to call to them, for the better
appeasing of the matter ; declaring his name, and professing
himself to be an especial friend to Peter de Ponte, and
that he had sundry things for him, which he greatly desired :
and in the meantime, while he was thus talking with them
(whereby he made them to hold their hands) he willed the
mariners to row away; so that, at last, he gat out of their
danger. And then asking for Peter de Ponte ; one of his
sons, being Senor Nicholas de Ponte, came forth : whom,
he perceiving, desired “to put his men aside, and he himself
would leap ashore, and commune with him,” which they did.
So that after communication had between them, of sundry
things, and of the fear they both had : Master Hawkins
desired to have certain necessaries provided for him.

In the mean space, while these things were providing, he
trimmed the mainmast of the Jesus , which, in the storm
aforesaid, was sprung. Here he sojourned seven days, re¬
freshing himself and his men. In the which time, Peter de
Ponte, dwelling at Santa Cruz, a city twenty leagues off,
came to him ; and gave him as gentle entertainment, as if
he had been his own brother.

To speak somewhat of these islands, being called, in old
time, Insulce fortune?, by the means of the flourishing thereof.
The fruitfulness of them doth surely exceed far all other that
I have heard of. For they make wine better than any in
Spain : and they have grapes of such bigness that they may
be compared to damsons, and in taste inferior to none. For
sugar, suckets [sweetmeats], raisons of the sun [our present
raisins], and many other fruits, abundance: for rosin, and
raw silk, there is great store. They want neither corn, pul¬
lets, cattle, nor yet wild fowl.

They have many camels also: which, being young, are
eaten of the people for victuals ; and being old, they are
used for carriage of necessities. Whose property is, as he is
taught, to kneel at the taking of his load, and the unlading
again ; of understanding very good, but of shape very de¬
formed ; with a little belly; long misshapen legs; and feet
very broad of flesh, without a hoof, all whole saving the great
toe ; a back bearing up like a molehill, a large and thin neck,
with a little head, with a bunch of hard flesh which Nature
hath given him in his breast to lean upon. This beast liveth

36 The vanishing island s! [,W

hardly, and is contented with straw and stubble ; but of strong
force, being well able to carry five hundredweight.

In one of these islands called Ferro, there is, by the reports
of the inhabitants, a certain tree which raineth continually ;
by the dropping whereof, the inhabitants and cattle are satis¬
fied with water: for other water have they none in all the island.
And it raineth in such abundance that it were incredible unto
a man to believe such a virtue to be in a tree ; but it is known
to be a Divine matter, and a thing ordained by GOD : at
whose power therein, we ought not to marvel, seeing He
did, by His Providence (as we read in the Scriptures) when
the Children of Israel were going into the Land of Promise,
fed them with manna from heaven, for the space of forty
years. Of these trees aforesaid, we saw in Guinea many ;
being of great height, dropping continually; but not so
abundantly as the other, because the leaves are narrower,
and are like the leaves of a pear tree.

About these islands are certain flitting islands, which have
been oftentimes seen ; and when men approach near them,
they vanished : as the like hath been of these now known (by
thereport of the inhabitants), which were not found but of along
time, one after the other; and, therefore, it should seem he isnot
yet born, to whom GOD hath appointed the finding of them.

In this island of Teneriffe, there is a hill called the Pike,
because it is piked ; which is, in height, by their report,
twenty leagues : having, both winter and summer, abundance
of snow on the top of it. This Pike may be seen, in a clear
day, fifty leagues off; but it sheweth as though it were a black
cloud [at] a great height in the Element [atmosphere]. I have
heard of none to be compared with this in height ; but in
the [West] Indies I have seen many, and, in my judgement,
not inferior to the Pike : and so the Spaniards write.

The 15th of November, at night, we departed from Tene¬
riffe ; and the 20th of the same, we had sight of ten caravels
that were fishing at sea : with whom we would have spoken ;
but they, fearing us, fled into a place of Barbary, called Cape
de las Barbas.

The 20th, the ship’s pinnace, with two men in her, sailing
by the ship, was overthrown [upset] by the oversight of them
that were in her. The wind was so great, that before they

? ?is6s] Narrow escape of the Pinnace. 37

were espied and the ship had cast about [tacked] for them, she
was driven half a league to the leeward of the pinnace ;
and had lost sight of her, so that there was small hope of
recovery, had not GOD’s help and the Captain’s [Sir J. Haw¬
kins] diligence been: who, having well marked which way the
pinnace was by the sun, appointed twenty-four of the lustiest
rowers in the great boat to row to the windwards ; and so
recovered (contrary to all men’s expectations) both the
pinnace and the men sitting upon the keel of her.

The 25th, he came to Cape Blanco, which is on the coast
of Africa ; and a place where the Portuguese do ride [i.e., at
anchor ], that fish there, in the month of November especially ;
and is a very good place of fishing for pargoes, mullet, and
dog fish. In this place, the Portuguese have no Hold for
their defence ; but have rescue [defence] of the barbarians,
whom they entertain as their soldiers for the time of their
being there : and for their fishing upon that coast of Africa,
do pay a certain tribute to the King of the Moors. The
people of that part of Africa are tawny, having long hair.
Their weapons, in wars, are bows and arrows.

The 26th, we departed from S. Avis Bay, within Cape
Blanco; where we had refreshed ourselves with fish and
other necessaries : and the 29th, we came to Cape Verde,
which lieth in 14 N. Lat.

These people are all black, and are called Negroes; of
stature, goodly men : and well liking, by reason of their food,
which [surjpasseth [that of] all other Guineans, for kine,
goats, pullen, rice, fruits, and fish. Here we took fishes with
heads like conies [rabbits], and teeth nothing varying; of a
jolly thickness, but not past a foot long : and are not to be
eaten, without flaying or cutting off the head.

To speak somewhat of the sundry sorts of these Guineans.
The people of Cape Verde are called Leophares, and counted
the goodliest men of all others, saving the Manicongoes, which
do inhabit on this side the Cape of Good Hope. These Leo¬
phares have wars against the Jeloffes, which are borderers
[neighbours] by them. Their weapons are bows and arrows,
targets, and short daggers ; darts also, but varying from
other Negroes : for, whereas the others use a long dart to
fight with in their hands, they carry five or six small ones
a piece, which they cast with.

38 The Kidnappers arrive at Cape Verde. [ ? ?is6s#

These men also are more civil than any others, because of
their daily traffic with the Frenchmen ; and are of a nature
very gentle and loving. For while we were there, we took in
a Frenchman ; who was one of the nineteen that going to
Brazil in a bark of Dieppe, of 60 tons : and being a seaboard
of Cape Verde, 200 leagues, the planks of their bark, with a
sea, break out upon them so suddenly, that much ado they
had to save themselves in their boats. But by GOD’s
providence, the wind being westerly (which is rarely seen
there), they got to the shore, to the isle Braves [? Goree ] ; and
in great penury got to Cape Verde : where they remained six
weeks, and had meat and drink of tne same people.

The said Frenchman having forsaken his fellows, which
were three leagues from the shore : and wandering with the
Negroes to and fro, fortuned to come to the water’s side ; and
communing with certain of his countrymen which were in
our ship, by their persuasions, came away with us. But his
entertainment amongst them was such [i.e., so pleasant], that
he desired it not ; but, through the importunate request of
his countrymen, consented at the last.

Here we stayed but one night and part of the day. For the
7th of December, we came away : in that pretending [intend¬
ing] to have taken Negroes there, perforce; the Minion's men
gave them there to understand of our coming, and our pretence,
wherefore they did avoid the snares we had laid for them.

The 8th of December, we anchored by a small island
called Alcatrarsa [Alcantraz island] : wherein, at our going
ashore, we found nothing but sea birds, as we call them,
gannets ; but by the Portuguese called Alcatrarses, who, for
that cause, gave the said island the same name. Herein,
half of our boats were ladened with young and old fowl ;
which, not being used to the sight of men, flew so about us,
that we struck them down with poles.

In this place, the two ships riding; the two barks, with
their boats, went into an island of the Sapies, called La
Formio, to see if they could take any of them : and there
landed, to the number of 80, in armour. And espying cer¬
tain, made to them ; but they fled in such order [a manner]
into the woods, that it booted them not to follow.

So, going on their way forward till they came to a river,
which they could not pass over ; they espied on the other side,

j ?is6s>] The Samboses, a conquering tribe. 39

two men ; who, with their bows and arrows, shot terribly at
them. Whereupon we discharged certain harquebusses to
them again ; but the ignorant people weighed it not, because
they knew not the danger thereof : but used a marvellous
crying in their fight, with leaping and turning their tails, that
it was most strange to see, and gave us great pleasure to
behold them. At the last, one being hurt with an harquebus
upon the thigh, looked upon his wound, and wist now how it
came because he could not see the pellet.

Here Master Hawkins perceiving no good to be done
amongst them, because we could not find their towns ; and
also not knowing how to go into Rio Grande [or Jeba ] for
want of a pilot, which was the very occasion of our coming
thither : and finding so many shoals, feared, with our great
ships to go in ; and therefore departed on our pretended
[intended] way to the Idols.

The 10th of December, we had a north-east wind with
rain and storm ; which weather continuing two days to¬
gether, was the occasion that the Solomon and Tiger lost our
company : for whereas the Jesus and pinnace [ Swallow ]
anchored at one of the islands called Sambula, the 12th day;
the Solomon and Tiger came not thither till the 14th.

In this island, we stayed certain days ; going, every day, on
shore to take the inhabitants, with burning and spoiling
their towns : who before were Sapies, and were conquered
by the Samboses [the modern Sambos], inhabitants beyond
Sierra Leone.

These Samboses had inhabited there three years before our
coming thither; and, in so short space, have so planted the
ground that they had great plenty of mill [millet], rice, roots,
pompions [pumpkins], pullin, goats, of small dried fry: every
house being full of the country’s fruit, planted by GOD’s
Providence, as Palmito trees, fruits like dates, and sundry
others, in no place in all that country so abundantly; where¬
by they lived more deliciously than others.

These inhabitants had divers of the Sapies which they took
in the wars, as their slaves ; whom only they kept to till the
ground, in that they neither have the knowledge thereof, nor
yet will work themselves : of whom, we took many at that
place ; but of the Samboses, none at all ; for they fled into
the main [land.].

40 Two Negro cannibal tribes. [ ? !565.

All the Samboses have white teeth as we have, far unlike
to the Sapies which do inhabit about Rio Grande : for their
teeth are all filed, which they do for bravery, to set them¬
selves out; and do jag [? tattoo ] their flesh, both legs, arms,
and bodies as workmanlike as a jerkin maker with us pinketh
a jerkin. These Sapies be more civil than the Samboses.
For whereas the Samboses live most by the spoil of their
enemies, both in taking their victuals, and eating them also:
the Sapies do not eat man’s flesh, unless, in the wars, they be
driven by necessity thereunto (which they have not used
[done] but by the example of the Samboses) ; but live only
with fruits and cattle, whereof they have great store.

This plenty is the occasion that the Sapies desire not war,
except they be thereunto provoked by the invasions of the
Samboses : whereas the Samboses, for want of food, are
enforced thereunto ; and, therefore, are not only wont to kill
them that they take, but also keep those that they take
until such time as they want meat, and then they kill
them.

There is also another occasion that provoketh the Sam¬
boses to war against the Sapies ; which is for coveteousness
of their riches. For whereas the Sapies have an order [a
custom] to bury their dead in certain places appointed for
that purpose, with their gold about them ; the Samboses
dig up the ground to have the same treasure : for the Sam¬
boses have not the like store of gold that the Sapies have.

In this island of Sambula, we found about fifty boats called
[in Portuguese] almadas or canoes, which are made of one
piece of wood, digged out like a trough ; but yet of a good pro¬
portion, being about eight yards long, and one in breadth,
having a beak head, and a stern very proportionably made ;
and on the outside artificially carved, and painted red and
blue. They are able to carry [at sea] twenty or thirty men ;
but about the coast, threescore and upward. In these canoes,
they row, standing upright, with an oar somewhat longer
than a man ; the end whereof is made about the breadth and
length of a man’s hand of the largest sort. They row very
swift ; and, in some of them, four rowers and one to steer
make as much way as a pair of oars in [a wherry on] the
Thames of London.

Their towns are prettily divided, with a main street at

? ?is6s>] Description of a Negro village. 41

the entering in, that goeth through the town ; and another
overthwart street, which maketh their towns crossways.

Their houses are built in a rank, very orderly, in the face
of the street : and they are made round, like a dovecot, with
stakes set full of Palmito leaves, instead of a wall. They are
not much more than a fathom large [across], and two of height ;
and thatched with Palmito leaves very close, other some
with reeds : and over the roof thereof, for the better garnish¬
ing of the same, there is a round bundle of reeds prettily
contrived like a lover [louvre]. In the inner part, they make
a loft of sticks whereupon they lay all their provision of
victuals. A place they reserve at their entrance for the
kitchen ; and the place they lie in is divided with certain
mats, artificially made with the rind of the Palmito trees.
Their bedsteads are of small staves laid along, and raised
a foot from the ground, upon which is laid a mat ; and
another upon them, when they list. For other covering
they have none.

In the middle of the town, there is a house larger and
higher than the others, but in form alike ; adjoining unto
which, there is a place made of four good stanchions of wood,
and a round roof over it : the ground also raised round with
clay, a foot high : upon the which floor were strewed many
fine mats. This is the Consultation House ; the like where¬
of is in all towns, as the Portuguese affirm. In which place,
when they sit in council, the King or Captain sitteth in the
midst ; and the Elders upon the floor by him (for they give
reverence to their Elders), and the common sort sit round
about them. There they sit to examine matters of theft;
which if a man be taken with, to steal but one Portuguese
cloth from another, he is sold to the Portuguese for a slave.
They consult also and take order what time they shall go to
wars ; and (as it is certainly reported by the Portuguese) they
take order in gathering of the fruits, in the season of the year:
and also of Palmito wine (which is gathered by a hole cut
in the top of a tree and a gorde [gourd] set there for the re¬
ceiving thereof, which falleth in by drops ; and yieldeth fresh
wine again within a month), and this being divided, part and
portion like, to every man, by the judgement of the Captain
[Chief] and Elders ; ever man holdeth himself contented.
And this, surely, I judge to be a very good order ; for other-

42 Death of a Carpenter of the Tiger . [ ? 556ji

wise where there is scarcity of Palmito ; every man would
have [seek] the same ; which might breed great strife. But
of such things as every man doth plant for himself ; the
sower thereof reapeth it to his own use : so that nothing is
common but that which is unset by man’s hands.

In their houses, there is more common passage of lizards
like evets, and others greater (of black and blue colour, of
near[ly] a foot long besides their tails) than there is, with
us, of mice in great houses.

The Sapies and Samboses also use, in their wars, bows and
arrows made of reeds, with heads of iron poisoned with the
juice of a cucumber: whereof I have had many in my hands.

In their battles they have target men with broad wicker
targets [shields], and darts with heads of iron at both ends :
the one in form of a two-edged sword, a foot and a half long,
and at the other end the iron of the same length, made to
counterpoise it ; that, in casting, it might fly level, rather
than for any other purpose as I can judge. And when they
espy the enemy, the Captain, to cheer his men, crieth, Hungry !
and they answer Heygre! and with that, every man placeth
himself in order. For about every target man, three bowmen
will cover themselves; and shoot as they see advantage : and
when they give the onset, they make such terrible cries that
they may be heard two miles off.

For their belief, I can hear of none that they have, but in
such as they themselves imagine to see in their dreams ; and
so worship the pictures, whereof we saw some like unto
devils.

In this island aforesaid, we sojourned unto the 21st of
December, where, having taken certain Negroes, and as much
of their fruit, rice, and mill as we could well carry away
(whereof there was such store that we might have laden one
of our barks therewith) we departed.

And, at our departure, divers of our men [i.e., of the Jesus]
being desirous to go on shore to fetch pompions (which
having proved, they had found to be very good) certain of the
Tiger' s men went also: amongst the which, there was a Car¬
penter, a young man. Who, with his fellows, having fetched
many, and carried them down to their boats ; as they were
ready to depart, desired his fellows “ to tarry while he might

? 1565.] Unsuccessful attack on Bimba. 43

go up to fetch a few, which he had laid by for himself,” who,
being more licorous [gluttonous] than circumspect, went up
without his weapon. And as he went up alone, possibly being
marked of the Negroes that were upon the trees, they,
espying him to be alone and without weapon, dogged him ;
and finding him occupied in binding his pompions together,
came behind him ; and overthrowing him, straight cut his
throat : as he, afterwards, was found by his fellows, who
came to the place for him ; and there found him naked.

The 22nd, the Captain went into a river, called Callowsa,
with the two barks, the Jesus' s pinnace, and the Solomon's
boat ; leaving at anchor, in the river’s mouth, the two ships :
where the Portuguese rode in the river,, being twenty leagues
in. He came thither the 25th, and despatched his business ;
and so returned, with two caravels laden with Negroes.

The 27th, the Captain, being advertised by the Portuguese
of a town of the Negroes, called Bimba, being in the way as
they returned ; where was not only great quantity of gold,
but also there were not above forty men, and a hundred
women and children in the town, so that if he would give the
adventure upon the same, he might get a hundred slaves.
With the which tidings, he being glad (because the Portu¬
guese should not think him to be of so base a courage, but
that he durst give them that, and greater attempts; and being
thereunto, also, the more provoked with the prosperous
success he had in other adjacent islands, where he had put
them all to flight, and taken in one boat twenty together),
determined to stay before the town three or four hours, to
see what he could do. And thereupon prepared his men in
armour and weapon, together, to the number of forty men,
well appointed, having for their guides certain Portuguese in
a boat : who brought some of them to their death.

We landing, boat after boat, and divers of our men scat¬
tering themselves (contrary to the Captain’s will) by one or
two in a company, for the hope they had to find gold in their
houses, ransacking the same; in the meantime, the Negroes
came upon them, and hurt many, being thus scattered ;
whereas, if five or six had been together, they had been able
(as their companions did) to give the overthrow to forty of
them. Being driven down to take their boats, they were

44 An equal number of Men, and Sharks ! [ , ?is6s<

followed so hardly by a rout of Negroes (who, by that, took
courage to pursue them to their boats) that not only some of
them, but others standing on shore, not looking for any such
matter (by means that the Negroes did flee at the first, and
our company remained in the town) were suddenly so set
upon, that some, with great hurt, recovered their boats :
other some, not able to recover the same, took to the water,
and perished by means of the ooze.

While this was doing ; the Captain, who, with a dozen
men, went through the town, returned; finding two hundred
Negroes at the water’s side, shooting at them in the boats,
and cutting them in pieces that were drowned in the water :
at whose coming, they all ran away.

So he entered his boats ; and before he could put off from
the shore, they returned again, and shot very fiercely, and
hurt divers of them.

Thus we returned back, somewhat discomforted ; although
the Captain, in a singular wise manner, carried himself, with
countenance very cheerful outwardly, as though he did little
weigh the death of his men, nor yet the hurt of the rest
(although his heart inwardly was broken in pieces for it) : done
to this end, that the Portuguese being with him, should rot
presume to resist against him, nor take occasion to put him
to further displeasure or hindrance for the death of our men ;
having gotten, by our going, ten Negroes, and lost seven of
our best men (whereof Master Field, Captain of the Solomon
was one) and had twenty-seven of our men hurt.

In the same hour, while this was adoing, there happened,
at the same instant, a marvellous miracle to them in the
ships, who rode ten leagues to the seaward, by many sharks
or tiburons , which came about the ships : one was taken by
the Jesus, and four by the Solomon ; and one, very sore hurt,
escaped. And so it fell out with our men \i.e., at Bimba ], whereof
one of the Jesus's men, and four of the Solomon's were killed,
and the fifth, having twenty wounds, was rescued, and
escaped with much ado.

The 28th, they came to their ships, the Jesus and the
Solomon.

And the 30th, they departed from thence to Taggarin.

The 1st of January [1565], the two barks, and both the

? ?i56s.] They escape the army of Sierra Leone. 45

boats forsook the ships, and went into a river called the
Casseroes : and the 6th, having despatched their business,
the two barks returned, and came to Taggarin where the two
ships were at anchor.

Not two days after the coming of the two ships thither
\i.e., 2nd January] they put their water caske [casks] ashore,
and filled it with water, to season the same : thinking to
have filled it with fresh water afterwards. And while their
men were some on shore, and some at their boats ; the
Negroes set upon them in their boats, and hurt divers of
them ; and came to the casks, and cut the hoops of twelve
butts, which lost us four or five days’ time, besides great
want we had of the same.

Sojourning at Taggarin, the Swallow went up the river,
about her traffic; where they saw great towns of the Negroes,
and canoes that had threescore men in apiece.

There, they understood by the Portuguese, of a great
battle between them of Sierra Leone side, and them of
Taggarin. They of Sierra Leone had prepared three hundred
canoes to invade the other.

The time was appointed, not past six days after our de¬
parture from thence : which we would [wished lo] have seen,
to the intent we might have taken some of them ; had it not
been for the death and sickness of our men, which came by the
contagiousness of the place ; which made us to haste away.

The 18th of January, at night, we departed from Taggarin ;
being bound for the West Indies. Before which departure,
certain of the Solomon's men went on shore to fill water, in
the night ; and as they came on shore, with their boat, being
ready to leap on land, one of them espied a negro in a white
coat, standing on a rock, ready to have received them when
they came on shore ; having in sight, also, eight or nine of
his fellows, some leaping out in one place and some in
another ; but they hid themselves straight [immediately] again.
Whereupon our men doubting [fearing] they had been a great
company, and sought to have taken them at more advantage,
(as GOD would ! ) departed to their ships: not thinking there
had been such mischief pretended to them, as there was
indeed ; which, the next day, we understood of a Portuguese
that came down to us, who had traffic with the Negroes.

46 5° days' sailing to the West Indies. [ ? 9;s6s,

By whom, we understood, that the King of Sierra Leone
had made all the power he could, to take some of us. Partly
for the desire he had to see what kind of people we were, that
had spoiled his people at the Idols, whereof he had news
before our coming; and, as I judge, also upon other occasions,
provoked by the Tangomangoes. But sure we were, that the
army was come down : by means that, in the evening, we
saw such a monstrous fire made by the watering place, that
was not seen before ; which fire is the only mark for the
Tangomangoes, to know where their army always is.

If these men had come down in the evening, they had
done us great displeasure ; for that we were on shore filling
water. But GOD (who worketh all things for the best)
would not have it so ; and by Him, we escaped without
danger. His name be praised for it !

The igth of this same month, we departed with all our
ships, from Sierra Leone towards the West Indies ; and for the
space of twenty-eight days, we were becalmed, having now
and then contrary winds and some tornadoes amongst the
same calm, which happened to us very ill : being but reason¬
ably watered for so great a company of Negroes and ourselves,
which pinched us all ; and that which was worst, put us in
such fear that many never thought to have reached to the
Indies, without great death of Negroes and of themselves. But
the Almighty GOD (who never suffereth His elect to perish !)
sent us the 16th of February, the ordinary breeze, which is
the North-west wind, which never left us, till we came to an
island of the cannibals, called Dominica ; where we arrived
the gth [? io th] of March, upon a Saturday. And because
it was the most desolate place in all the island, we could see
no cannibals ; but some of their houses where they dwelled ;
and as it should seem, they had forsaken the place for want
of fresh water ; for we could find none there but rain water,
and such as fell from the hills and remained as a puddle in
the dale ; whereof we filled for our Negroes [!].

The cannibals of that island, and also others adjacent,
are the most desperate warriors that are in the Indias,
by the Spaniards’ report ; who are never able to conquer
them ; and they are molested by them not a little, when they
are driven to water there in any of those islands.

? ?is6s>] The Fleet arrives at Margarita. 47

Of very late, not two months past, in the said island, a
caravel being driven to water, was, in the night, set upon by
the inhabitants ; who cut their cable in the hawser, whereby
they were driven ashore, and so taken by them and eaten.

The Green Dragon of Newhaven [Havre], whereof was ,
Captain, one Bontemps, in March [1565], also, came to one
of those islands, called Grenada ; and being driven to water,
could not do the same for the cannibals, who fought with him
very desperately two days.

For our part also, if we had not lighted upon the desertest
place in all that island, we could not have missed; but
should have been greatly troubled by them, by all the
Spaniards’ reports, who make them devils in respect of men.

The 10th day, at night, we departed from thence, and the
15th, had sight of nine islands called the Testigos ; and the
16th, of an island called Margarita, where we were entertained
by the Alcade, and had both beeves and sheep given us, for
the refreshing of our men. But the Governor of the island
would neither come to speak with our Captain, neither yet
give him any license to traffic : and to displease us the more,
whereas we had hired a Pilot to have gone with us, they
would not only not suffer him to go with us, but also sent
word by a caravel, out of hand, to Santo Domingo, to the
Viceroy, who doth represent the King’s person, of our arrival
in those parts. Which had like to have turned us to great dis¬
pleasure, by the means that the same Viceroy did send word
to Cape de la Vela, and toother places along the coast, com¬
manding them (by the virtue of his authority and by the
obedience that they owe to their Prince) that no man should
traffic with us, but should resist us with all the force they
could.

In this island, notwithstanding that we were not within
four leagues of the town ; yet were they so afraid, that not
only the Governor himself but also all the inhabitants forsook
their town, assembling all the Indians to them, and fled into
the mountains : as we were partly certified, and saw the ex¬
perience ourselves, by some of the Indians coming to see us ;
when three Spaniards a horseback passing hard by us, went
unto the Indians (having every one of them their bows and
arrows), procuring them away, who before were conversant
with us.

43 Potatoes, the most delicate of roots ! [ ? *s65<

Here perceiving no traffic to be had with them, not yet
water for the refreshing of our men ; we were driven to depart
the 20th day.

And the 22nd, we came to a place in the Main, called
Cumana : whither the Captain going in his pinnace, spake
with certain Spaniards, of whom he demanded traffic.

But they made him answer, “ They were but soldiers newly
come thither, and were not able to buy one Negro.”

Whereupon he asked for a watering place, and they
pointed him a place two leagues off, called Santa Fe : where
we found marvellous goodly watering, and commodious for the
taking in thereof; for that the fresh water came into the sea,
and so our ships had, aboard the shore, twenty fathoms water.
Near about this place inhabited certain Indians, who, the next
day after we came thither, came down to us ; presenting
mill, and cakes of bread, which they had made of a kind of
corn called Maize, in bigness of a pea, the ear whereof is
much like to a teasel, but a span in length, having thereon
a number of grains. Also they brought down to us hens,
potatoes, and pines, which we bought for beads, pewter
whistles, glasses, knives, and other trifles.

These potatoes be the most delicate roots that may be
eaten ; and do far exceed our parsnips or carrots. Their
pines be of the bigness of two fists, the outside whereof is
of the making of a pine apple, but it is soft like the rind of a
cucumber ; and the inside eateth like an apple, but it is more
delicious than any sweet apple sugared.

These Indians be of colour tawny, like an olive; having
every one of them, both men and women, hair all black, and
no other colour ; the women wearing the same hanging down
to their shoulders, and the men rounded, and without beards :
neither men or women suffering any hair to grow in any part
of their body, but daily pull it off as it groweth.

These people be very small feeders : for travelling, they
carry but two small bottles of gourds, wherein they put in
one the juice of sorrel whereof they have great store ; and in
the other flour of their maize, which being moist, they eat,
taking sometimes of the other. These men carry every man
his bow and arrows ; whereof some arrows are poisoned for
wars, which they keep in a cane together, which cane is of

? ?Is6sJ Tempted by Caribs with gold. 49

the bigness of a man’s arm : other some with broad heads of
iron, wherewith they strike fish in the water. The experience
whereof, we saw not once nor twice, but daily, for the time
we tarried there. For they are so good archers, that the
Spaniards, for fear thereof, arm themselves and their
horses with quilted canvas of two inches thick, and leave no
place of their bodies open to their enemies, saving their eyes
which they may not hide ; and yet oftentimes are they hit in
that so small a scantling. Their poison is of such a force,
that a man being stricken therewith, dieth within four and
twenty hours, as the Spaniards do affirm : and, in my judge¬
ment, it is likely there can be no stronger poison, as they
make it, using thereqnto apples which are very fair and red
of colour, but are a strong poison ; with the which, together
with venemous bats and vipers, adders and other serpents,
they make a medley, and therewith anoint the same.

The beds which they have, are made of gossapine cotton,
and wrought artificially of divers colours ; which they carry
about with them when they travel, and making the same
fast to two trees, lie therein. The people be surely gentle
and tractable, and such as desire to live peaceable ; or else
had it been impossible for the Spaniards to have conquered
them as they did, and the more to live now peaceably : they
being so many in number, and the Spaniards so few.

From thence, we departed the 28th ; and the next day, we
passed between the mainland and the island called Tortuga,
(a very low island) in the year of our Lord GOD 1565 afore¬
said : and sailed along the coast until the 1st of April ; at
which time, the Captain sailed along in the Jesus’s pinnace
to discern the coast, and saw many Caribs on shore, and
some also in their canoes : which made tokens unto him of
friendship, and shewed gold, meaning thereby that they
would traffic for wares.

Whereupon he stayed, to see the manner of them ; and so
for two or three trifles, they gave such things as they had about
them, and departed.

But the Caribs were very importunate to have them come
on shore ; which, if it had not been for want of wares to
traffic with them, he would not have denied them : because
the Indians which we saw before, were very gentle people, and
i- D 4

50 The Fleet arrives at Burboroata. [ ? ?ls6Si

such as do no man hurt. But (as GOD would have it !) he
wanted that thing, which, if he had had, would have been his
confusion. For these were no such kind of people as we took
them to be ; but more devilish a thousand parts, and are
eaters and devourers of any man they can catch. As it was
afterwards declared unto us at Burboroata, by a caravel
coming out of Spain with certain soldiers and a Captain
General, sent by the King for those eastward parts of the
Indias. Who sailing along in a pinnace, as our Captain did,
to descry the coast, was by the Caribs called ashore, with
sundry tokens made to him of friendship, and gold shewed as
though they desired to traffic : with the which the Spaniards
being moved, suspecting no deceit at all^went ashore amongst
them. The Captain was no sooner ashore, but with four or
five more was taken ; the rest of his company being invaded
by them, saved themselves by flight : but they that were
taken, paid their ransom with their lives, and were presently
[at once] eaten. And this is their practice to toll [decoy]
with their gold, the ignorant to their snares. They are blood¬
suckers of Spaniards, Indians, and all that light in their
laps : not sparing their own countrymen if they can con¬
veniently come by them.

Their policy in fight with the Spaniards is marvellous. For
they choose for their refuge, the mountains and woods ; where
the Spaniards, with their horses, cannot follow them : and if
they fortune to be met in the plain, where one horseman may
overrun a hundred of them ; they have a device, of late
practised by them, to pitch stakes of wood in the ground, and
also small iron pikes, to mischief their horses ; wherein they
shew themselves politic warriors.

They have more abundance of gold than all the Spaniards
have, and live upon the mountains where the mines are, in
such number, that the Spaniards have much ado to get any
of them from them. And yet, sometimes, by assembling a
great number of men, which happeneth once in two years,
they get a piece from them ; which afterwards they keep sure
enough.

Thus having escaped the danger of them; we kept our course
along the coast, and came the 3rd of April, to a town called
Burboroata [ ? La Guayra, or near it] ; where his ships came to

? ?is6s] The tricks of trade.

an anchor, and the Captain himself went ashore to speak
with the Spaniards. To whom, he declared himself to be an
Englishman, and came thither to trade with them, by the way
of merchandise ; and therefore required license for the same.

Unto whom, they made answer, that “ They were forbidden
by the King to traffic with any foreign nation, upon penalty
to forfeit their goods.” Therefore they desired him “ not to
molest them any further ; but to depart as he came ! for other
comfort he might not look for at their hands : because they
were subjects, and might not go beyond the law.”

But he replied, “ His necessity was such, as he might not
do so. For being in one of the Queen of England’s Armados,
and having many soldiers in them ; he had need of some re¬
freshing for them, and of victuals, and of money also : with¬
out the which, he could not depart.” And, with much other
talk, persuaded them not to fear any dishonest part on his
behalf towards them ; for neither would he commit any such
thing to the dishonour of his Prince, nor yet for his honest
reputation and estimation, unless he were too rigorously
dealt withal, which he hoped not to find at their hands : in
that it should as well redound to their profit as his own, and
also he thought they might do it without danger ; because
their Princes were in amity one with another, and for our
parts, we had free traffic in Spain and Flanders which are in
his dominions ; and therefore he knew no reason why he
should not have the like in all his dominions.

To the which, the Spaniards made an answer, that “ It lay
not in them, to give any license ; for that they had a Governor
to whom the government of those parts was committed ; but
if they would stay ten days, they would send to their Governor,
who was threescore leagues off ; and would, within the space
appointed, return answer of his mind.”

In the meantime, they were contented he should bring his
ships into harbour ; and there they would deliver him any
victuals he would require.

Whereupon, the fourth day, we went in, where, being one
day, and receiving all things according to promise, the
Captain advised himself that to remain there ten days idle,
spending victuals and men’s wages ; and perhaps, in the end,
receive no good answer from the Governor, it were mere
folly, were mere folly: and therefore determined to make

52 Continued mercantile diplomacy. [ ? ;s6s

request to have license for the sale of certain lean and sick
Negroes, which he had in his ship, like [ly] to die upon his
hands, if he kept them ten days ; having little or no refreshing
for them, whereas other men having them, they would be
recovered well enough. And this request he was forced to
make, because he had no otherwise wherewith to pay for
victuals and for necessaries which he should take.

Which request being put in writing, and presented, the
Officers and town dwellers assembled together ; and finding
his request so reasonable, granted him license for thirteen
Negroes : which, afterwards, they cause the Officers to view,
to the intent they should grant to nothing but that which
were very reasonable, for fear of answering thereunto after¬
wards.

This being past, our Captain, according to their license,
thought to have made sale ; but the day passed, and none
came to buy, who before made shew that they had great need
of them : and therefore he wist not what to surmise of them,
whether they went about to prolong the time of the Governor’s
answer, because they would keep themselves blameless ; or
for any other policy he knew not. And for that purpose,
sent them word, marvelling what the matter was, that none
came to buy them.

They answered, “ Because they had granted license only
to the poor to buy those Negroes of small price; and their
money was not so ready as other men’s of more wealth.
More than that. As soon as ever they saw the ships ; they
had conveyed away their money by their wives that went
into the mountains for fear, and were not yet returned : and
yet asked two days, to seek their wives, and fetch their
money.”

Notwithstanding, the next day, divers of them came to
cheapen ; but could not agree of price, because they thought
the price too high.

Whereupon the Captain (perceiving they went about to
bring down the price, and meant to buy; and would not
confess, if he had license, that he might sell at any reason¬
able rate, as they were worth in other places), did send for
the principals of the town, and made a shew he would depart,
declaring himself “to be very sorry that he had so much
troubled them, and also that he had sent for the Governor to

? -s6s>] The arrival of the Governor. 53

come down ; seeing now his pretence [intention] was to
depart ” : whereat they marvelled much, and asked him,
“ What cause moved him thereunto seeing, by their working,
he was in possibility to have his license ? ”

To which, he replied that “ It was not only a license that
he sought, but profit ; which he perceived was not to be had
there; and therefore would seek farther”: and withal
shewed them his writings, what he paid for his Negroes ;
declaring also the great charge he was at, in his shipping and
men’s wages, and, therefore, to countervail his charges, he
must sell his Negroes for a greater price than they offered.

So they, doubting [ fearing ] his departure, put him in
comfort to sell better there than in any other place : and if it
fell out that he had no license, that he should lose his labour
in tarrying, for they would buy without license.

Whereupon, the Captain being put in comfort, promised
them to stay, so that he might make sale of his lean Negroes;
which they granted unto : and the next day did sell some of
them.

They having bought and paid for them, thinking to have
had a discharge of the Customer [Fanner of the Customs ]
for the custom [ import duty ] of the Negroes, being the King’s
duty; they gave it away to the poor, for GOD’s sake; and
did refuse to give the discharge in writing : and the poor,
not trusting their words, for fear lest, hereafter, it might be
demanded of them, did refrain from buying any more. So
nothing else was done until the Governor’s coming down ;
which was the 14th day [ i.e., of April],

Then the Captain made petition, declaring that “ He was
come thither in a ship of the Queen’s Majesty of England,
being bound to Guinea ; and thither driven by wind and
weather : so that being come thither, he had need of sundry
necessaries for the reparation of the said Navy, and also
great need of money for the payment of his soldiers, unto
whom he had promised payment ; and therefore although he
would, yet would not they depart without it. And for that
purpose, he requested license for the sale of certain of his
Negroes; declaring that though they were forbidden to traffic
with strangers : yet for that there was great amity between
their Princes, and that the thing pertained to our Queen’s
Highness ; he thought he might do their Prince great service,

54 Hostages given for a bona fide traffic. [ ? \s6^

and that it would be well taken at his hands, to do it in this
cause.”

The which allegations, with divers others put in request,
were presented unto the Governor ; who sitting in council
for that matter, granted unto his request for license.

But yet there fell out another thing, which was the abating
of the King’s custom ; being upon every slave, 30 ducats
[5s. 6 d, each— £8 5s.— about £66 now]: which would not be
granted unto.

Whereupon the Captain perceiving that they would neither
come near his price, he looked for, by a great deal ; not yet
would abate the King’s custom of that they offered ; so that
either he must be a great loser by his wares, or else compel
the Officers to abate the same King’s custom, which was too
unreasonable (for to a higher price he could not bring the
buyer): therefore the 16th of April, he prepared 100 men, well
armed with bows, arrows, harquebusses, and pikes ; with the
which he marched to the townwards.

Being perceived by the Governor, he straight, with all
expedition, sent messengers to know his request, desiring him
“ to march no further forward until he had answer again,
which incontinent he should have.”

So our Captain declaring “how unreasonable a thing the
King’s custom was, requested to have the same abated and
to pay 7 J per centum , which is the ordinary custom for wares
through his Dominions there ; and unto this, if they would
not grant, he would displease them.”

And this word being carried to the Governor ; answer was
returned that “all things should be to his content.”

Thereupon he determined to depart ; but the soldiers and
mariners finding so little credit in their promises, demanded
gages for the performance of the promises, or else they would
not depart. And thus they being constrained to send their
gages ; we departed, beginning our traffic, and ending the
same without disturbance.

Thus having made traffic in the harbour until the 28th;
our Captain with his ships intended to go out of the road and
purposed to make shew of his departure ; because now the
common sort having employed their money, the rich men were
come to town, who made no shew that they were come to buy,
so that they went about to bring down the price ; and by his

? I565.] Trading, anchored off Curacao. 55

policy the Captain knew they would be made the more eager,
for tear lest we departed, and they should go without any at all.

The 29th, we being at anchor without the road, a French
ship called the Green Dragon of Newhaven [Havre] ; whereof
was Captain one Bontemps, came in : who saluted us after
the manner of the sea, with certain pieces of ordnance ; and
we saluted him with the like again.

With whom, having communication ; he declared that he
had been at the Mine [El Mina] in Guinea, and was beaten
off by the Portuguese galleys, and enforced to come thither
[Burhoroata] to make sale of such wares Negroes] as he
had : and further that the like was happened with the Minion .
Besides [which], the Captain David Carlet and a Merchant
[Supercargo], with a dozen mariners [had been] betrayed by the
Negroes at their first arrival thither, and remained prisoners
with the Portugals; besides other misadventures of the loss
of their men happened, through the great lack of fresh water,
with great doubts of bringing home the ships. Which was
most sorrowful for us to understand.

Thus having ended our traffic here, the 4th of May ; we
departed, leaving the Frenchman behind us.

The night before the which, the Caribs, whereof I made
mention before, being to the number of two hundred, came
in their canoes to Burboroata, intending by night to have
burned the town and taken the Spaniards, who being more
vigilant (because of our being there) than their custom was :
perceiving them coming, raised the town ; who, in a moment,
being a horseback (by means [that] their custom is, for
all doubts, to keep their horses ready saddled, in the
night), set upon them and took one ; but the rest making
shift for themselves, escaped away. This one, because he
was their guide, and was the occasion that divers times they
had made invasion upon them, had for this travail a stake
thrust through him, and so out at his neck.

The 6th of May aforesaid, we came to an island called
Curasao, where we had thought to have anchored ; but could
not find ground, and having let fall an anchor with two cables
were fain to weigh it again : and the yth, sailing along the
coast to seek a harbour, and finding none, we came to an
anchor where we rode open in the sea. In this place, we

56 Vast increase of West Indian cattle. [ ? ?is6s

had traffic for hides, and found great refreshing both of beef,
mutton, and lambs ; whereof there was such plenty that
saving the skins, we had the flesh given us for nothing. The
plenty whereof was so abundant, that the worst in the ship
thought scorn not only of mutton, but also of sodden lamb,
which they disdained to eat unroasted.

The increase of cattle in this island is marvellous; which,
from a dozen of each sort brought thither by the Governor, in
25 years [i.e., about 1540], he had a hundred thousand, at the
least : and of other cattle was able to kill, without spoil of the
increase, 1,500 yearly, which he killethfor the skins ; and of
the flesh saveth only the tongues, the rest he leaveth to the
fowl [birds'] to devour. And this I am able to affirm, not only
upon the Governor’s own report (who was the first that brought
the increase thither) who so remaineth unto this day : but
also by that I saw myself in one field ; where a hundred
oxen lay one by another, all whole, saving the skin and tongue
taken away.

And it is not so marvellous a thing, why they do thus cast
away the flesh in all the islands of the West Indies, seeing
the land is great, and more than they are able to inhabit ; the
people few, having delicate fruits and meats enough besides
to feed upon, which they rather desire ; and the increase of
cattle which passeth man’s reason to believe, when they
come to a great number.

For in Santo Domingo (an island called by the finders
thereof, Hispaniola) is so great a quantity of cattle, and such
increase thereof, that, notwithstanding the daily killing of
them for their hides, it is not possible to assuage the number
of them, but they are devoured by wild dogs, whose number
is such (by suffering first to range the woods and mountains),
that they eat and destroy 60,000 a year ; and yet small lack
is found of them. And, no marvel ! for the said island is al¬
most as big as all England, and being the first place that
was found of all the Indies, and of long time inhabited before
the rest, it ought therefore, of reason, to be the most populous ;
and, to this hour, the Viceroy and the Council Royal abideth
there, as in the chiefest place of all the Indies, to prescribe
orders to the rest, for the King’s behalf : yet they have but
one city and thirteen villages in all the same island, whereby
the spoil of the cattle, in respect of the increase, is nothing.

? ?is6s] Arrival at Rio de la Hacha. 57

The 15th of the foresaid month, we departed from Curagao ;
not a little to the rejoicing of our Captain and us, that
we had there ended our traffic [i.e., in hides]. But notwith¬
standing our sweet meat, we had sour sauce ! For, by reason
of our riding [in] so open a sea : what with blasts (wherewith
our anchors, being aground, three at once came home), and
also with contrary winds blowing (whereby, for fear of the
shore, we were fain to haul off to have anchor hold) some¬
times a whole day and a night, we turned [ tacked ] up and
down. And this happened not once, but half a dozen times,
in the space of our being there.

The x6th, we passed by an island, called Aruba [Oruba], The
17th, at night, we anchored six hours, at the west end of Cape
de la Vela: and, in the morning, being the 18th, weighed again,
keeping our course. In the which time, the Captain sailing
by the shore in the pinnace, came to the Rancheria, a place
where the Spaniards used to fish for pearls ; and there
spoke with a Spaniard, who told him how far off he was
from Rio de la Hacha : which, because he would not over¬
shoot, he anchored that night again. And the 19th, came
thither.

Where, having talk with the King’s Treasurer of the Indies,
resident there, he declared his quiet traffic at Burboroata ;
and shewed a certificate of the same, made by the Governor
thereof : and therefore he desired to have the like there
also.

But the Treasurer made answer that “ They were forbidden
by the Viceroy and Council at Santo Domingo ; who having
intelligence of our being on the coast, did send express com¬
mission to resist us with all the force they could, insomuch
that they durst not traffic with us in any case,” alleging
that “ If they did, they should lose all that they did traffic for ;
besides their bodies at the Magistrate’s commandment.”

Our Captain replied, that “ He was in an Armado of the
Queen’s Majesty’s of England, and sent about her other
affairs ; but driven besides his pretended [intended] voyage,
was enforced by contrary winds to come into those parts,
where he hoped to find such friendship as he should do in
Spain : to the contrary whereof, he knew no reason, in
that there was amity betwixt their Princes. But seeing they
would, contrary to all reason, go about to withstand his

58 Display of force on both sides. [ ? ’s6s>

traffic; it should not be said by [of] him, that ‘having the
force he hath, to be driven from his traffic, perforce,’ but he
would rather put it in adventure, to try whether he or they
should have the better : and, therefore, willed them, to
determine either to give him license to trade, or else to stand
to their own harms ! ”

So upon this, it was determined, “ He should have license
to trade ; but they would give him such a price as was the
one half less than he had sold for before : ” and thus they
sent word they would do, and none otherwise, and “ If it
liked him not, he might do what he would ! for they were
determined not to deal otherwise with him.”

Whereupon, the Captain weighing their unconscionable
request, wrote to them a letter, that “ they dealt too rigorously
with him ! to go about to cut his throat in the price of his com¬
modities ; which were so reasonably rated, as they could not,
by a great deal, have the like at any other man’s hands.
But seeing they had sent him this, for his supper ; he would,
in the morning, bring them as good a breakfast ! ”

And therefore, in the morning, being the 21st of May, he
shot off a whole-culverin, to summon the town : and, pre¬
paring 100 men in armour, went ashore ; having in his great
boat, two falcons of brass, and in the other boats, double¬
bases in their noses [bows].

Which being perceived by the townsmen, they, incontinent,
in battle array, with their drum, and ensign [colours] displayed,
marched from the town to the sands, to the number of 150
footmen, making great brags by their cries, and weaving
[waving] us ashore ; whereby they made a semblance to have
fought with us indeed.

But our Captain perceiving them to brag so, commanded
the two falcons to be discharged at them, which put them in
no small fear (as they afterwards declared) to see such great
pieces in a boat. At every shot, they fell flat to the ground ;
and as we approached near unto them, they broke their array,
and dispersed themselves so much for fear of the ordnance,
that, at last, they all went away with their ensign.

The horsemen, also, being about 30, made as brave a shew
as might be ; coursing up and down, with their horses, their
brave white leather targets in the one hand, and their javelins
in the other : as though they would have received us, at our

? ?is6s.] Matters are peaceably settled. 59

landing. But when we landed, they gave ground, and con¬
sulted what they should do : for they little thought we would
have landed so boldly.

And therefore, as the Captain was putting his men in array,
and marching forward to have encountered with them ; they
sent a messenger on horseback, with a flag of truce, to the
Captain : who declared that “ the Treasurer marvelled what
he meant to do, to come ashore in that order ; in considera¬
tion that they had granted to every reasonable request that
he did demand ! ”

But the Captain, not well contented with this messenger,
marched forwards.

The messenger prayed him to stay his men ; and said, “ If
he would come apart from his men, the Treasurer would come
and speak to him ! ” whereunto he did agree to commune
together.

The Captain, only with his armour, without weapon ; and
the Treasurer on horseback, with his javelin : who was
afraid to come near him, for fear of “his armour, which,” he
said, “ was worse than his weapon ! ” And so keeping aloof,
communing together, the Treasurer, granted, in fine, all his
requests.

Which being declared by the Captain to the company
they desired “ to have pledges for the performance of all
things,” doubting [fearing] that otherwise, when they had
made themselves stronger, they would have been at defiance
with us : and seeing that, now, they might have what they
would request, they judged it to be more wisdom to be in assur¬
ance than to be forced to make any more labours about it.

So, upon this, gages were sent, and we made our traffic
quietly with them.

In the meantime, while we stayed here, we watered a good
breadth off from the shore ; where, by the strength of the fresh
water, running into the sea, the salt water was made fresh.

In this river, we saw many crocodiles, of sundry bignesses,
but some as big as a boat, with four feet, a long broad mouth,
and a long tail ; whose skin is so hard, that a sword will not
pierce it. His nature is to live out of the water, as a frog
doth : but he is a great devourer, and spareth neither fish
(which is his common food), nor beasts, nor men, if he take
them : as the proof thereof was known by a Negro, who, as

60 Spaniards are secretly reinforced. [ , ;s65i

he was filling water in the river, was by one of them, carried
clean away, and never seen after.

His nature is ever, when he would have his prey, to cry
and sob like a Christian body ; to provoke \entice] them to
come to him : and then he snatcheth at them ! And, there¬
upon, came this proverb, that is applied unto women, when
they weep, Lachrymce Crocodili : the meaning whereof is, that
as the crocodile when he crieth, goeth them about most to
deceive ; so doth a woman, most commonly, when she weepeth.

Of these, the Master of the Jesus watched one ; and by
the bank’s side, struck him, with the pike of a bill, in the
side ; which, after three or four times turning in sight, sank
down, and was not afterwards seen.

In the time of our being in the rivers of Guinea, we saw
many of a monstrous bigness : amongst the which, the
Captain being in one of the barks coming down the same,
shot a falcon at one, which he very narrowly missed, that,
with a fear, plunged into the water, making a stream, like
the “ way ” of a boat.

Now while we were here, whether it were of a fear that the
Spaniards doubted [feared], we would have done them some
harm before we departed ; or for any treason that they pre¬
tended towards us, I am not able to say : but then, came
thither a Captain with a dozen soldiers, from some of the
other towns, upon a time when our Captain and the Treasurer
had cleared all things between them, and were in communica¬
tion of a debt of the Governor’s of Burboroata, which was to
be paid by the said Treasurer; who would not answer the
same by any means.

Whereupon certain words of displeasure passed betwixt
the Captain and him ; and parting [separating] the one from
the other ; the Treasurer possibly doubting that our Captain
would, perforce, have sought the same, did immediately
command his men to arms, both horsemen and footmen ; but
because [and inasmuch] as the Captain was in the river, on the
back side of the town, with his other boats and all his men
unarmed and without weapons, it was to be judged he meant
him little good ; having that advantage of him, that, coming
upon the sudden, he might have mischiefed many of his men.

But the Captain having understanding thereof not (trusting

? Js6s>] Providential discovery of the same.

to their gentleness, if they might have the advantage), de¬
parted aboard his ships ; and, at night, returned again : and
demanded, amongst other talk, “ What they meant by
assembling their men, in that order ? ”

They answered, that “ their Captain being come to town,
did muster his men according to his accustomed manner.”

But this is to be judged to be a cloak, in that, coming for
that purpose, he might have done it sooner. But the truth
is, they were not of force until then, whereby to enterprise
any matter against us by means of pikes and harquebusses ;
whereof they had want and were now furnished by our
Captain ; and also three falcons which (having got in other
places) they had secretly conveyed thither. These made
them the bolder, and also for that they saw now a con¬
venient place to do such a feat : and time also serving there¬
unto, by the means that our men were not only unarmed and
unprovided (as at no time before), but also were occupied in
hewing of wood, and least thinking of any harm. These
were occasions to provoke them thereunto.

And I suppose they went about to bring it to effect, in that
I* and another Gentleman being in the town, think- * The Author
ing of no harm towards us; and seeing men of thls story-
assembling in armour to the Treasurer’s house, whereof we
marvelled : and (revoking [recalling to mind ] the former talk
between the Captain and him, and the unreadiness of our
men of whom advantage might have been taken) departed out
of the town immediately, to give knowledge thereof. But
before we came to our men by a flight-shot [bow-shot\, two
horsemen riding at gallop, were come near us (being sent,
as we did guess, to stay us, lest we should carry the news to
our Captain), but seeing us so near our men, they stayed
their horses ; coming together and suffering us to pass : belike
because we were so near that if they had gone about the same,
they had been espied by some of our men; which then would
have immediately departed, whereby they would have been
frustrate of their pretence.

So the two horsemen rode about the bushes, to espy what
we did. And seeing us gone, to the intent that they might
shadow [cover] their coming down in post [i.e., in post
haste] ; whereof suspicion might be had, feigned a simple
excuse, in asking, “ Whether he could sell any wine ? ”

62 Turning their faces homewards. [ ?IS6S)

But that seemed so simple to the Captain, that, standing
in doubt of their courtesy, he returned in the morning, with
his three boats appointed with bases, [and falcons] in their
noses ; and his men with weapons accordingly : whereas,
before, he carried none.

Thus dissembling all injuries conceived of both parts, the
Captain went ashore, leaving pledges in the boats for him¬
self, and cleared all things between the Treasurer and
him, saving for the Governor’s debt : which the one, by no
means, would answer ; and the other (because it was not his
due debt), would not molest him for it, but was content to
remit it until another time.

He therefore departed, causing the two barks which rode
near the shore, to weigh and go under sail ; which was done
because that our Captain, demanding a testimony of his good
behaviour there, could not have the same until he were
under sail, ready to depart. And therefore, at night, he went
for the same again, and received it at the Treasurer’s hand;
of whom, very courteously, he took his leave, and departed,
shooting off the base of his boat, for his farewell : and the
townsmen also shot off four falcons and thirty harquebusses,
and this was the first time that he knew of the conveyance of
their falcons.

The 31st of May, we departed, keeping our course to His¬
paniola : and the 4th June, we had sight of an island, which
we made to be Jamaica ; marvelling that, by the vehement
course [current] of the seas, we should be driven so far to
leeward. For setting our course to the west end of His¬
paniola, we fell with the middle of Jamaica; notwithstand¬
ing that to all men’s sight, it shewed a headland : but they
were all deceived by the clouds that lay upon the land two
days together, in such sort, that we thought it to be the
headland of the said island.

And a Spaniard being in the ship, who was a merchant,
and an inhabitant in Jamaica (having occasion to go to
Guinea, and being, by treason, taken of the Negroes, and
afterwards bought by the Tangomangoes, was by our Captain,
brought from thence ; and had his passage to go into his
country), perceiving the land, made as though he knew every

? ?is6s.] English ignorance of W. I. navigation. 63

place thereof, and pointed to certain places, which he named
to be such a place ! and such a man’s ground ! and that
behind such a point, was the harbour ! but, in the end, he
pointed so from one point to another, that we were a leeboard
of all places ; and found ourselves at the west end of
Jamaica, before we were aware of it ; and being once to
leeward, there was no getting up again.

So that, by trusting to the Spaniard’s knowledge, our
Captain sought not [had no opportunity ] to speak with any of
the inhabitants ; which if he had not [thus] made himself so
sure of, he would have done, as his custom was, in other
places. But this man was a plague, not only to our Captain,
whom he made to lose, by overshooting the place, £ 2,000
[—about £16,000 now ] by hides, which he might have gotten;
but also to himself. For having been three years out of his
country, and in great misery in Guinea, both among the
Negroes and Tangomangoes ; and in hope to come to his
wife and friends, as he made sure account : in that, at his
going into the pinnace, when he went to shore, he put on
his new clothes, and, for joy, flung away his old; he could
not, afterwards, find any habitation, neither there, nor in
all Cuba, which we sailed along ; but it fell out ever, by
one occasion or other, that we were put besides the same.
So that, he was fain to be brought into England. And it
happened to him, as it did to a duke of Samaria, when the
Israelites were besieged, and were in great misery with
hunger ; and being told by the prophet Elisha, that “ a
bushel of flour should be sold for a shekel,” would not be¬
lieve him, but thought it impossible : and for that cause,
Elisha prophesied u He should see the same done, but he
should not eat thereof! ” So this man, being absent three
years, and not ever thinking to have seen his own country ;
did see the same ! went upon it ! and yet was it not his
fortune, to come to it ! or to any habitation whereby to re¬
main with his friends, according to his desire !

Thus, having sailed along the coast, two days, we departed
the 7th June ; being made to believe by the Spaniard, that it
was not Jamaica, but rather Hispaniola ; of which opinion,
the Captain also was, because that which he made Jamaica
seemed to be but a piece of the land, and thereby took it
rather to be Hispaniola, by the lying of the coast ; and also

64 They water at the Isle of Pines. [ ? -s6s<

for that being ignorant of the force of the current, he could
not believe he was so far driven to leeward.

And therefore setting his course to Jamaica, and after cer¬
tain days not finding the same ; he perceived then certainly
that the island which he was at before, was Jamaica; and that
the clouds did deceive him: whereof he marvelled not a little.

And this mistaking of the place came to as ill a pause as
the overshooting of Jamaica. For by this, did he also over¬
pass a place in Cuba, called Santa Cruz ; where, as he was
informed, was a great store of hides to be had.

Thus being disappointed of his two ports; where he
thought to have raised great profit by his traffic, and also to
have found great refreshing of victuals and water for his men :
he was now greatly disappointed.

And such want had he of fresh water, that he was forced
to seek the shore, to obtain the same. Which, after certain
days overpassed with storms and contrary winds, he had sight
of; but yet not of the mainland] of Cuba, but of certain
islands, two hundred in number, whereof the most part were
desolate of inhabitants.

By the which islands, the Captain passing in his pinnace,
could find no fresh water, until he came to an island bigger
than all the rest, called the Isle of Pines [I. de Pinos], where
we anchored with our ships, the 16th of June, and found
water. Which although it were neither so toothsome as
running water, by means it was standing and but the water
of rain, and also, being near the sea, was brackish : yet did
ve not refuse it ; but were more glad thereof, as the time
then required, than we should have been, another time, with
fine conduit water.

Thus, being reasonably watered, we were desirous to de¬
part : because the place was not very convenient for such
ships of charge [big vessels] as they were, as there were many
shoals to leeward ; and it also lay open to the sea, for any
wind that should blow. Therefore, the Captain made the
more haste away; which was not unneedful. For little
sooner [scarce] were their anchors weighed, and foresail set ;
but there arose such a storm that they had not much to spare
in doubling of the shoals : and one of the barks, not being
fully ready as the rest, was fain, for haste, to cut the cable in
hawse, and lose both anchor and cable, to save herself.

? ?is6s>] Early English notice of turtle. 65

Thus, the 17th of June, we departed.

On the 20th, we fell in with the west end of Cuba,
called Cape St. Antonio; where, for the space of three days,
we doubled along [tacked], till we came beyond the shoals
which are twenty leagues beyond St. Antonio.

And the ordinary brise [breeze] taking us, which is the
north-east wind, put us, the 24th, from the shore ; and there¬
fore we went to the north-west, to fetch wind ; and also to
the coast of Florida, to have the help of the current [the Gulf
Stream], which was judged to have set to the eastward.

So the 29th, we found ourselves in 270 [i.e., N. Lat., but
still inside the Gulf of Mexico] : and in the soundings of Florida,
wherein we kept ourselves, the space of four days, sailing
along the coast [which was, however , Westward of the Fleet,
not Eastward] as near as we could, in ten or twelve fathom
water : having, all the while, no sight of land.

The 5th of July, we had sight of certain islands of sand,
called the Tortugas, which is low land, where the Captain
went in, with his pinnace ; and found such a number of birds
that, in half an hour, he laded her with them ; and, if there
had been ten boats more, they might have done the like.
These islands bear the name of Tortles [turtle] , because of
the number of them which there do breed : whose nature is,
to live both in the water and also upon land, but breed only
upon the shore, by making a great pit, wherein they lay eggs,
to the number of three or four hundred, and covering them
with sand, they are hatched by the heat of the sun ; and by
this means, cometh the great increase. Of these, we took
very great ones, which have both back and belly all of bone
of the thickness of an inch; the fish [flesh] whereof we proved,
[it] eating much like veal: and finding a number of eggs in
them, tasted also of them, but they did eat very sweetly.

Here we anchored six hours ; and then a fair gale of wind
springing : we weighed anchor, and made sail toward Cuba,
whither we came the 6th day ; and weathered as far as the
Table, being a hill so called, because of the form thereof.

Here, we lay off and on all night, to keep that which we
had gotten to windward ; intending to have watered in the
morning, if we could have done it ; or else, if the wind had
1. E 4

66 The ships miss Havana twice. [_ ? ?x56S

come larger [fuller], to have plied to windward, to Havana ;
which is a harbour, whereunto all the Fleets of the Spaniards
come, and do there tarry to have the company one of
another.

This hill, we thinking to have been the Table, as it was
indeed, made account that Havana was but eight leagues to
windward. But, by the persuasions of a Frenchman, who
made the Captain believe he knew the Table very well, and
had been at Havana, and said that “ It was not the Table!
and that the Table was much higher, and nearer to the
seaside! and that there was no plain ground to the Eastward,
nor hills to the Westward ; but all was contrary ! and that
behind the hills to the Westward was Havana ! ”

To which persuasion, credit being given by some, and they
not of the worst; the Captain was persuaded to go to leeward :
and so sailed along the 7th and 8th days, finding no habi¬
tation, nor no other Table. And then perceiving his folly to
give ear to such praters, was not a little sorry : both because
he did consider what time he should spend ere he could get
so far to windward again (which would have been, with the
weathering which we had, ten or twelve days’ work ; and what
it would have been longer, he knew not) ; and, that which
was worst, he had not above a day’s water, and therefore,
knew not what shift to make.

But in fine, because the want was such, that his men could
not live without it ; he determined to seek water ; and to go
further to leeward, to a place, as it is set in the Card [chart],
called Rio de los Puercos. Which he was in doubt of, as to
whether it were inhabited ; and whether there were water or
not, and whether (for the shoals) he might have such access
with his ships, that he might conveniently take in the same.

And while we were in these troubles, and kept our way to
the place aforesaid, Almighty GOD, our guide ! (who would
not suffer us to run into any further danger which we had
been like to have incurred, if we had ranged the coast of
Florida [■ i.e ., the West coast of the present State of Florida], as
we did before ; which is so dangerous, by reports, that no
ship escapeth, which cometh thither; as the Spaniards have
very well proved the same) sent us, the 8th day, at night, a
fair westerly wind. Whereupon the Captain and company
consulting, determined not to refuse GOD’s gift ; but every

? ?Ij6s] Narrow escape of the two boats. 67

man was contented to pinch his own belly, whatsoever had
happened [might happen ].

And taking the said wind, we got the 9th day to the Table ;
and sailing the same night, unawares overshot Havana; at
which place we thought to have watered. But the next day,
not knowing that we had overshot the same, sailed along the
coast, seeking it : and the 1 ith day, in the morning, by certain
known marks, we understood that we had overshot it twenty
leagues; in which coast ranging, we found no convenient
watering place. Whereby there was no remedy, but to dis¬
embogue, and to water upon the coast of Florida [i.e., to go
out of the Gulf of Mexico, by the Gulf of Florida, into the A tlantic
Ocean; and coast Northward along the East coast of the present
State of Florida ]. For, to go farther to the Eastward, we
could not for the shoals ; which are very dangerous ; and
because the current [the Gulf Stream] shooteth to the North¬
east, we doubted [feared] , by the force thereof, to set upon
them, and therefore durst not approach them.

So making but reasonable way, the day aforesaid and all
the night ; the 12th day, in the morning, we fell in with the
Islands upon the Cape of Florida [? Florida Reefs] ; which we
could scant [scarcely] double, by the means that fearing the
shoals to the Eastward, and doubting the current coming
out of the West, which was not of that force we made account
of. For we felt little or none, till we fell with the Cape; and
then felt such a current [going North-east] that, bearing
all sails against the same [i.e., Westward], we were yet driven
back again [at] a great pace.

The experience whereof, we had by the Jesus’s pinnace and
the Solomon’s boat : which were sent the same day, in the
afternoon, whiles the ships were becalmed, to see if they
could find any water upon the islands aforesaid. Who spent
a great part of the day in rowing thither, being farther off
than they deemed it to be ; and in the meantime, a fair
gale of wind springing at sea, the ships departed, making a
sign to them to come away. Who, although they saw them
depart, because they were so near the shore, would not lose
all the labour they had taken ; but determined to keep their
way, and see if there were any water to be had ; making no
account but to find the ships well enough.

But they spent so much time in filling the water which

68 Gulf Stream carries Jesus northward. [ ? ?is6s.

they had found, that night was come before they could make
an end : and having lost the sight of the ships, they rowed
what they could ; but were wholly ignorant which way they
should seek them again, as indeed there was a more [greater]
doubt, than they knew of.

For when they departed, the ships were in no current ; but
sailing but a mile further, they found one so strong, that,
bearing all sails, it could not prevail against the same, but
they were driven back.

Whereupon the Captain sent the Solomon , with the two
barks, to bear near the shore, all night ; because the current
was a great deal less there: and to bear a light, with shooting
off a piece [gun] now and then; to the intent, the boats might
better know how to come to them.

The Jesus also bear a light in her topgallant, and also
shot off a piece, now and then.

But the night passed, and the morning was come, being
the 13th day, and no news could be heard of them. But the
ship and barks ceased not to look still for them ; yet they
thought it was all in vain, by means they heard not of them
all the night past: and therefore determined to tarry no longer
seeking for them till noon ; and if they heard no news then,
they would depart to the Jesus , which, perforce, by the
vehemency of the current, was carried almost out of sight.

But, as GOD would have it ! the time being now come,
and they having tacked about : in the pinnace’s top, they had
sight of them, and took them up. They in the boats, being
to the number of one and twenty, having sight of the ships,
and seeing them tacking about ; whereas, before, at the first
sight of them, they did greatly rejoice, were, now, in a greater
perplexity than ever they were ; for by this, they thought
themselves utterly forsaken, whereas, before, they were in
some hope to have found them.

Truly, GOD wrought marvellously for them ! For they
themselves, having no victuals but water, and being sore
oppressed with hunger, were not of opinion to bestow any
further time in seeking the ships than that present noon time.
So that, if they had not, at that instant, espied them, they
had gone to the shore to have made provision for victuals ;
and with such things as they could have gotten, either to
have gone for that part of Florida where the Frenchmen were

? Js6s] Coasting along the Floridan shore. 69

planted [the River of May], which would have been very hard
for them to have done, because they wanted victuals to bring
them thither, being 120 leagues off; or else to have remained
among the Floridans. At whose hands, they were put in
comfort by a Frenchman who was with them (that had re¬
mained in Florida, at the first finding thereof, a whole year
together) to receive victuals sufficient, and gentle entertain¬
ment, if need were for a year or two, until which time, GOD
might have provided for them. But how contrary this would
have fallen out to their expectations, it is not hard to judge ;
seeing those people of the Cape of Florida are of more
savage and fierce nature, and more valiant than any of
the rest : which the Spaniards well proved. Who, being 500
men, intended to land there : and few or none of them returned,
but were enforced to forsake of the same. And of their
cruelty ; mention is made in the book of the Decades , of a
friar, who taking upon him to persuade the people to sub¬
jection, was by them taken, and his skin cruelly pulled over
his ears, and his flesh eaten.

In these islands, they, being ashore, found a dead man dried
in a manner whole ; with other heads and bodies of men.
So that this sort of men are eaters of the flesh of men, as
well as the cannibals.

But to return to our purpose.

The 14th day [of July], the ship and barks came to the Jesus,
bringing news of the recovery of the men ; which was not a
little to the rejoicing of the Captain and the whole company.
And so then, all together, they kept on their way along the
coast of Florida.

The 15th day, they came to an anchor ; and so from 26°
to 30° 30' where the French abode, ranging all along the
coast ; seeking for fresh water. Anchoring every night
because we would overshoot no place of fresh water ; and, in
the day time, the Captain in the ship’s pinnace sailing along
the shore, went into every creek, speaking with divers of the
Floridans, because he would understand where the French
inhabited ; and not finding them in 28° as it was declared
unto him, marvelled thereat : and never left sailing along the
coast till he found them ; who inhabited in a river, by them
called the River of May, standing in 30° and better.

70 They find the French at River of May, [ ? [ s6 s>

In ranging along this coast, the Captain found it to be all
an island ; and therefore it is all low land, and very scant of
fresh water ; but the country was marvellously sweet with
both marsh and meadow ground, and goodly woods among.
There they found sorrel to grow as abundantly as grass ; and,
where their houses were, great store of maize and mill [millef ,
and grapes of great bigness, but of taste much like our
English grapes. Also great plenty of deer, which came upon
the sands before them.

The houses are not many together ; for in one house, an
hundred of them do lodge: they being made much like a great
barn (and in strength not inferior to ours, for they have
stanchions and rafters of whole trees, and are covered with
Palmito leaves) having no place divided, but one small room
for their king [chief] and queen.

In the midst of this house is a hearth, where they make
great fires all night ; and they sleep upon certain pieces of
wood, hewn in for the bowing of their backs, and another
place made high for their heads; which they put, one by
another, all along the walls on both sides. In their houses
they remain only in the nights ; and in the day, they frequent
the fields, where they dress their meat, and make provision
for victuals ; which they provide only for a meal from hand
to mouth.

There is one thing to be marvelled at, the making of their
fire; and not only they, but the Negroes do the same: which
is made only by two sticks, rubbing them one against another ;
and this they may do, in any place they come [to], where
they find sticks sufficient for the purpose.

In their apparel, the men only use deer skins, wherewith
some use the same as garments to cover them before and
behind : which skins are painted, some yellow and red, some
black and russet ; every man according to his own fancy.

They do not omit to paint their bodies also with curious
knots or antique work, as every man, in his own fancy deviseth :
which painting [ tattooing ], to make it continue the better, they
use with a thorn to prick their flesh, and dent in the same,
whereby the painting may have better hold. In their wars,
they use a slighter colour of painting their faces, thereby to
make themselves shew the more fierce ; which, after their
wars ended, they wash away again.

, ?xs6sJ AND ARE WELL RECEIVED BY THEM. Jl

In their wars, they use bows and arrows, whereof their
bows are made of a kind of yew, but blacker than ours ; and,
for the most part, passing the strength of the Negroes or
Indians, for it is not greatly inferior to ours. Their arrows are
also of a great length, but yet of reeds, like other Indians :
but varying in two points, both in length, and also for nocks
and feathers, which the others lack; whereby they shoot very
steady. The heads of the same are vipers’ teeth, bones of
fishes, flint stones, piked points of knives which they having
gotten of the Frenchmen, broke the same, and put the points
of them in their arrows’ heads. Some of them have their
heads of silver ; other some that have want of these, put in
a kind of hard wood, notched, which pierceth as far as any of
the rest.

In their fight, being in the woods, they use a marvellous
policy for their own safeguard ; which is, by clasping a tree
in their arms, and yet shooting notwithstanding. This policy
they used with the Frenchmen in their fight ; whereby it ap-
peareth that they are people of some policy: and al¬
though they are called by the Spaniards, Gente triste , that is
to say, “Bad people,” meaning thereby, that they are not
men of capacity; yet have the Frenchmen found them so
witty in their answers, that by their Captain’s own report, a
Councillor with us could not give a more profound reason.

The women, also, for their apparel use painted skins, but
most of them gowns of moss, somewhat longer than our
moss, which they sew together artificially, and make the same
surplice wise : wearing their hair down to their shoulders, like
the Indians.

In this river of May aforesaid, the Captain entering with
his pinnace, found a French ship of 80 tons ; and two pinnaces,
of 15 tons apiece, by her 2 and speaking with the keepers
thereof, they told him of a fort, two leagues up, which they had
built, in which their Captain, Monsieur Laudonniere was,
with certain soldiers.

To whom, our Captain sending to understand of a watering
place, where he might conveniently take it in, and to have
license for the same : he straight (because there was no con¬
venient place but up the river five leagues, where the water
was fresh) did send him a pilot for the more expedition thereof,

72 Soldiers, the worst of colonists. [ ? ?xs65e

to bring in one of his barks ; which going in with other boats
provided for the same purpose, anchored before the fort. Into
the which, our Captain went ; where he was, by the General
with other Captains and soldiers, very gently entertained :
who declared unto him, the time of their being there, which
was fourteen months [i.e,, from May , 1564], with the extremity
they were driven to for want of victuals, having brought very
little with them. In which place they, being 200 men at their
first coming, had, in short space, eaten all the maize they
could buy of the inhabitants about them, and therefore
were driven certain of them to serve a king [chief] of the
Floridans against others his enemies, for mill [millet] and
other victuals : which having got, could not serve them, being
so many, so long a time. But want came upon them, in such
sort, that they were fain to gather acorns, which being
stamped small, and often washed to take away the bitterness
of them, they did use for bread : eating withal sundry times
roots, whereof they found many good and wholesome ; and
such as serve rather for medicines than for meats alone.

But this hardness, not contenting some of them (who would
not take the pains so much as to fish in the river before
their doors, but would have all things put into their mouths),
they did rebel against the Captain ; taking away first his
armour, andafterwardsimprisoning him : andso,to the number
of 80 of them, departed with a bark and a pinnace, spoiling
their store of victuals, and taking away a great part thereof
with them. And so went to the islands of Hispaniola and
Jamaica a roving, where they spoiled and pilled [pillaged]
the Spaniards, and having taken two caravels laden with wine
and casavi (which is a bread made of roots) and much other
victuals and treasure, had not the grace to depart therewith :
but were of such haughty stomachs that they thought their
force to be such that no man durst meddle with them, and so
kept harbour in Jamaica, going daily ashore at their pleasure.

But GOD which would not suffer such evil doers un¬
punished, did indurate their hearts in such sort, that they
lingered the time so long that a ship and galleas, being made
out of Santo Domingo, came thither into the harbour, and took
twenty of them ; whereof the most part were hanged, and the
rest carried into Spain : and some, to the number of five and
twenty, escaped in the pinnace, and came to Florida ; where,

? ?is6s] Hawkins’s kindness to the French. 73

at their landing, they were put in prison ; and, incontinent,
four of the chiefest being condemned, at the request of the
soldiers, did pass the harquebussiers, and then were hanged
upon a gibbet.

This lack of 60 men was a great discouragefment] and
weakening to the rest ; for they were the best soldiers that
they had. For they had now made the inhabitants weary of
them, by their daily craving of maize, having no wares left
to content withal ; and therefore were enforced to rob them,
and to take away their victuals perforce ; which was the oc¬
casion that the Floridans, not well contented therewith, did
take certain of their company in the woods, and slew them ;
whereby there grew great wars betwixt them and the French¬
men, and therefore they being but a few in number durst not
venture abroad, but as such time as they were enforced there¬
unto for want of food to do the same. And going twenty
harquebussiers in a company, were set upon by eighteen
kings, having 700 or 800 men, which with one of their bows
slew one of their men, and hurt a dozen, and drove them all
down to their boats ; whose policy in fight was to be marvelled
at, for having shot at divers of their bodies which were
armed, and perceiving that their arrows did not prevail
against the same, they shot at their faces and legs which
were the places that the Frenchmen were hurt in.

Thus, the Frenchmen returned, being in ill case by the hurt
of their men, having not above 40 soldiers left unhurt ;
whereby they might ill make any more invasions upon the
Floridans, and keep their fort withal : which they must have
been driven unto, had not GOD sent us thither for their
succour. For they had not above ten days’ victuals left
before we came.

In which perplexity, our Captain seeing them, spared them
out of his ship twenty barrels of meal, and four pipes of beans ;
with divers other victuals and necessaries which he might
conveniently spare: and to help them the better homewards,
whither they were bound, before our coming, at their request,
we spared them [for 700 crowns] one of our barks of 50 tons.

Notwithstanding the great want that the Frenchmen had,
the ground doth yield victuals sufficient, if they would have
taken pains to get the same ; but they being soldiers,
desired to live by the sweat of other men’s brows : for while

74 Glowing description of Florida. [ ? ’s6s#

they had peace with the Floridans, they had fish sufficient,
by weirs which they made to catch the same ; but when they
grew to wars, the Floridans took away the same again, and
then would not the Frenchmen take the pains to make any
more. The ground yieldeth naturally grapes in great store,
for, in the time that the Frenchmen were there, they made
twenty hogsheads of wine. Also it yieldeth roots passing
good, deer in marvellous store, with divers other beasts and
fowl [birds] serviceable t'o the use of man. These be things
wherewith a man may live, having corn or maize wherewith
to make bread ; for maize maketh good savoury bread, and
cakes as fine as flour : also it maketh good meal, beaten and
sodden with water, and eateth like pap wherewith we feed
children. It maketh also good beverage, sodden in water,
and nourishable : which the Frenchmen did use to drink of
in the morning ; and it assuaged their thirst, so that they had
no need to drink all the day after. And this maize was the
greatest lack they had, because they had no labourers to sow
the same ; and therefore to them that should inhabit the land
it were requisite to have labourers to till and sow the ground.
For they having victuals of their own, whereby they neither
rob nor spoil the inhabitants, may live not only quietly with
them, who naturally are more desirous of peace than of wars ;
but also shall have abundance of victuals proffered them for
nothing : for it is with them, as it is with one of us, when
we see another man ever taking away from us, although
we have enough besides, yet then we think all too little for
ourselves. For surely we have heard the Frenchmen report,
and I know it by the Indians, that a very little contenteth
them : for the Indians, with the head of maize roasted, will
travel a whole day ; and when they are, at the Spaniards’
finding [victualling], they give them nothing but sodden herbs
and maize ; and, in this order, I saw [i.e., in the W. /.] 60 of
them feed, who were laden with wares, and come fifty leagues
off.

The Floridans, when they travel, have a kind of herb dried,
Tobacco , and who with a cane and a earthen cup in the end, with
thefeStvirtue fire, and the dried herbs put together, do suck
through the cane the smoke thereof; which smoke satisfieth
their hunger, and therewith they live four or five days without
meat or drink. And this all the Frenchmen used for this

? 156s] Very early English notice of Tobacco. 75

purpose; yet do they hold opinion withal, that it causeth
water and phlegm to void from their stomachs.

The commodities of this land are more than are yet known
to any man. For besides the land itself, whereof there is
more than any Christian king is able to inhabit, it flourisheth
with meadow, pasture ground, with woods of cedar, Cyprus,
and other sorts, as better cannot be in the world. They
have for apothecary herbs, trees, roots, and gums in great
store ; as storax liquida , turpentine, gum, myrrh, and frank¬
incense, with many others, whereof I know not the names :
colours, red, black, yellow, and russet, very perfect ; where¬
with they so paint their bodies, and deer-skins which they
wear about them, that with water it neither fadeth away,
nor altereth colour.

Gold and silver they want not. For at the Frenchmen’s
first coming thither, they had the same offered them for little
or nothing ; for they received for a hatchet 2lbs. weight of
gold, because they knew not the estimation thereof : but the
soldiers being greedy of the same, did take it from them,
giving them nothing for it. The which they perceiving, that
both the Frenchmen did greatly esteem it, and also did
rigorously deal with them by taking the same away from
them, at last would not be known they had any more, neither
durst they wear the same for fear of [its] being taken away :
so that saving at the first coming, they could get none
of them. And how they came by this gold and silver the
Frenchmen knew not as yet ; but by guess, some (having
travelled to the south-west of the Cape, having found
the same dangerous, by means of sundry banks, as we
also have found the same : and there finding masts which
were wrecks of Spaniards coming from Mexico) judged that
they had gotten treasure by them. For it is most true that
divers wrecks have been made of Spaniards, having much
treasure. For the Frenchmen having travelled to the Cape-
ward a 150 miles, did find two Spaniards with the Floridans,
which they brought, after, to their fort ; whereof one was in
a caravel coming from the Indies, which was cast away four¬
teen years ago [i.e,, in 1551] and the other twelve years [in
I553] : of whose fellows, some escaped : other some were
slain by the inhabitants.

It seemeth they had estimation of their gold and silver, for

76 Two S PANISH CASTAWAYS. [ , ^

it is wrought flat and graven, which they wear about their
necks : other some made round like a pancake, with a hole
in the midst, to bolster up their breasts withal, because they
think it a deformity to have great breasts. As for mines,
either of gold or silver, the Frenchmen can hear of none they
have upon the island ; but of copper whereof, as yet, they have
not made the proof, because they were but few men. But it
is not unlike[ly], but that in the mainland] where are high
hills, may be gold and silver as well as in Mexico, because it
is all one main [land].

The Frenchmen obtained pearls of them, of great black¬
ness, but they were black, by means of roasting of them; for
they do not fish for them as the Spaniards do, but for their
meat. For the Spaniards used to keep daily afishing some
two or three hundred Indians, some of them that be of choice
a thousand : and their order is to go in canoes or rather great
pinnaces, with thirty men in apiece ; whereof the one half or
most part be divers, the rest do open the same for the pearls,
for it is not suffered that they should use dragging, for
that would bring them out of estimation, and mar the beds
of them.

The oysters which have the smallest sort of pearls are
found in seven or eight fathoms of water, but the greatest in
eleven or twelve fathoms.

The Floridans have pieces of unicorn horns [? bear's claws],
which they wear about their necks, whereof the Frenchmen
horns^which obtained many pieces. Of those unicorns they have
the inhabitants many,forthat they do affirm it to be a beast with one
mamma.™ horn, which coming to the river to drink, putteth
the same into the water before he drinketh. Of this unicorn’s
horn, there are of our company, that having gotten the same
of the Frenchmen, brought home thereof to show.

It is therefore to be presupposed that there are more com¬
modities as well as that, which, for want of time, and people
sufficient to inhabit of the same, cannot yet come to light ;
but I trust GOD will reveal the same before it be long, to
the great profit of them that shall take it in hand.

Of beasts in the country, besides deers, hares, polecats,
conies, ounces, and leopards, I am not able certainly to say ;
but it is thought that there are lions and tigers as well as
unicorns. Lions especially, if it be true that is said of the

» U.] The Fauna of Florida. 77

emnity between them and the unicorns. For there is no beast
but hath his enemy, as the cony [the rabbit ], the polecat ; a
sheep, the wolf ; the elephant, the rhinoceros ; and so of
other beasts the like : insomuch that whereas the one is, the
other cannot be missing.

And seeing I have made mention of the beasts of this
country, it shall not be from my purpose to speak also ot the
venomous beasts ; as crocodiles, whereof there is great abun¬
dance, adders of great bigness, whereof our men killed some of
a yard and a half long. Also I heard a miracle of one of
these adders, upon the which a falcon seizing the said adder,
[it] did clasp her tail upon her, which the French Captain
seeing, came to the rescue of the falcon, and took her flaying
the adder : and this falcon being wild, he did reclaim her,
and kept her, for the space of two months ; at which time,
for very want of meat, he was fain to cast her off. On these
adders, the French did feed, to the no little admiration
[wonderment] of us ; and affirmed the same to be a delicate
meal. And the Captain of the Frenchmen saw also a serpent
with three heads and four feet, of the bigness of a great
spaniel; which, for want of a harquebuss, he durst not
attempt to slay.

Of fish, also, they have in the river, pike, ro[a]ch, salmon,
trout, and divers other small fishes ; and of great fish, some
of the length of a man and longer, being of bigness accor¬
dingly, having a snout much like a sword, of a yard long.

There be also of sea fishes, which we saw coming along the
coast, flying : which were of the bigness of a smelt ; the
biggest whereof have four wings, but the others have but
two. Of these, we saw coming out of Guinea a hundred in
a company, which being chased by the “ gilt-heads,” other¬
wise called the bonitos, do to avoid them the better, take their
flight out of the water ; but yet are they not able to fly far
because of the drying of their wings, which serve them not to
fly but when they are moist : and therefore when they can fly
no further, they fall into the water, and having wet their
wings, take a new flight again. These bonitos be of bigness
like a carp, and in colour like a mackerel ; but it is the
swiftest fish in swimming that is, and followeth her prey very
fiercely, not only in the water, but also out of the water ; for as
the flying fish taketh her flight, so doth this bonito leap after

78 Early description of Flying Fishes. [ ? ?is6s.

them, and taketh them sometimes above the water. There
were some of those bonitos which, being galled by a fisgig,
did follow our ship, coming out of Guinea, 500 leagues.
There is a sea fowl also that chaseth this flying fish as well
as the bonito ; for as the flying fish taketh her flight, so doth
this fowl pursue to take her : which to behold is a greater
pleasure than hawking, for both the flights are as pleasant,
and also more often by a hundred times ; for the fowl
can fly no way, but one or other lighteth in her paws, the
number of them is so abundant. There is an innumerable
young fry of these flying fishes which commonly keep about
the ship, and are not so big as butterflies, and yet by flying,
do avoid the insatiableness of the bonito. Of the bigger sort
of these fishes, we took many, which, both day and night,
flew into the sails of our ship ; and there was not one of
them which was not worth a bonito : for being put upon a
hook drabbling in the water, the bonito would leap thereat,
and so was taken. Also we took many with a white cloth
made fast to a hook, which being tied so short in the water
that it might leap out and in, the greedy bonito thinking it to
be a flying fish leapeth thereat, and so is deceived.

We took also dolphins, which are of very goodly colour
and proportion to behold ; and no less delicate in taste.

Fowls also there be many, both upon land and upon sea ;
but concerning them on the land, I am not able to name
them, because my abode there was so short. But for the
fowl of the fresh rivers, these two I noted to be the chief :
whereof the Flamingo is one, having all red feathers, and
long red legs like the herne [heron] , a neck according to the
bill, red, whereof the upper neb [* i.e ., of the beak] hangeth an
inch over the nether ; and an Egript, which is all white as
the swan, with legs like to an hearneshewe [heronshaw] and of
bigness accordingly, but it hath in her tail feathers of so fine
a plume, that it passeth the estridge [ ostrich ] his feather.

Of the sea fowl, above all others not common in England,
I noted the Pelican, which is feigned to be the lovingest bird
that is ; which rather than her young should want, will spare
her heart’s blood out of her belly : but, for all this lovingness,
she is very deformed to behold. For she is of russet colour
(notwithstanding, in Guinea, I had seen of them as white as
a swan) having legs like the same, and a body like a herne

? xs6s.] Cattle are the hope of Florida. 79

[heron], with a long neck; and a thick long beak, from the
nether jaw whereof, down to the breast, passeth a skin of
such bigness as is able to receive a fish as big as a man’s
thigh : and thus her big throat and long bill doth make her
seem so ugly.

Here I have declared the estate of Florida, and the com¬
modities therein, to this day known ! which although it may
seem unto some by the means, that the plenty of gold and
silver is not so abundant as in other places, that the cost
bestowed on the same will not be able to quit [clear] the
charges ; yet am I of the opinion by that which I have seen
in other islands of the Indies (where such increase of cattle
hath been, that of twelve beasts, in five and twenty years,
did, in the hides of them, raise a £1,000 [~£8,ooo now] profit
yearly) that the increase of cattle only [alone] would raise
profit sufficient for the same. For we may consider, if so
small a portion did raise so much gain in so short a time,
what would a greater do, in many years ? And surely I may
affirm this, that the ground of the Indies, for the breeding]
of cattle, is not, in any point, to be compared with this of
Florida ; which is as green, all the year long, as it is any
time, in the summer, with us : which surely is not to be
marvelled at, seeing the country standeth in so watery a
climate. For once a day, without fail, they have a shower
of rain ; which, by means of the country itself (which is dry,
and more fervent[ly] hot than ours) doth make all things to
flourish therein. And because there is not there the thing
which we all seek for, being rather desirous of present gains ;
I do therefore affirm the attempt thereof to be more requisite
for a Prince : who is of power able to go through with the
same, rather than for any subject.

From thence, we departed, the 28th July, upon our voyage
homewards ; having there all things as might be most con¬
venient for our purpose : and took leave of the Frenchmen
that still remained there ; who determined, with diligence,
to make so great speed after, as they could.

Then, by means of contrary winds, we prolonged our
voyage in such manner, that victuals scanted with us ; so
that we were, divers times, or rather the most part, in de-

80 Safely reach home, by Newfoundland. [ ? ?is6s.

spair of ever coming home : had not GOD, of His goodness,
better provided for us, than our deserving. In which state
of great misery, we were provoked to call upon Him, by
fervent prayer ; which moved Him to hear us : so that we
had a prosperous wind, which did set [send] us so far shot
[ahead] as to be on the Bank of Newfoundland on St.
Bartholomew’s Eve [2 3rd August] ; and we sounded there¬
upon, finding ground at 130 fathoms. And being that day
somewhat becalmed, we took a great number ot fresh codfish,
which greatly relieved us: and, being very glad thereof, the
next day [24 th August] we departed; and had lingering little
gales for the space of four or five days. At the end of which
[? 29 th August] we saw a couple of French ships, and had of
them so much fish as would serve us plentifully for all the
rest of the way : the Captain paying for the same, both gold
and silver, to the just value thereof, unto the chief owners of
the said ships ; but they, not looking for anything at all,
were glad in themselves, to meet with such good entertain¬
ment at sea as they had at our hands.

After which departure from them, with a good large wind,
we came, the 20th of September [1565], to Padstow in Corn¬
wall, GOD be thanked ! in safety: with the loss of twenty
persons in all the voyage ; as with great profit to the
Venturers of the said voyage, so also to the whole realm, in
bringing home both gold, silver, pearls, and other
jewels in great store. His name therefore
be praised, for evermore ! Amen.

The Third V oyage of Sir John Ha whins.

I. — Earliest t i d i n q g of the disas¬
ter iji Ejhqland, Dec. 1568 — Jan. 1569.

3 Dec. 1568. W. Hawkins, junior, to Sir W. Cecil ... p. 83-4

22 Jan. 1569. The same to the Privy Council . p. 85-6

22 Jan. 1569. The same to Sir W. Cecil . p. 87-8

27 Jan. 1569. The same to the same . p. 89-90

II. — $ 1 R JOHJM HaWKINJS’jS OWN PRINTED
ACCOUNT, |3 P R I N Q OF 1569.

A true Declaration of the troublesome Voyage of Mr. John
Hawkins to the parts of Guinea and the West Indies, in
the years of our Lord 1567 and 1568 . pp. 91-103

III. — The Depositions in the JEJ nqli^h
Admiralty Court, jVl a r c h , 1569.

William Fowler, of Ratcliffe, Merchant .

William Clarke, Supercargo in the Fleet

John Hawkins, Esq .

Humphrey Fones, Steward of the Angel .

Jean Turren, Trumpeter in the Jesus .

The Depositions to the Twenty-seven Articles of the Schedule

p. 106-8
p. 108-9
P . 109-13
p. 1 13-14
/. 114
pp 115-126

With which are to be taken —

THE NARRATIVES OF THREE SURVIVORS OF THE 112 MEN
LANDED NEAR TAMPICO ON 8th OCTOBER, 1568.

David Ingram, who reached England in 1569 ... ... pp. 161-172

Miles Phillips, who arrived in England 1583 . pp. 173-218

Job Hortop, who got home to England, at last, in 1590 ... pp. 219-242

HAWKINS’S PRETENDED TREACHERY TO THE SPANIARDS,
MAY— SEPT. 1571.

13 May 1571. John Hawkins to Lord Burghley

7 June 1571. The same to the same .

4 Sept. 1571. The same to the same . .

... pp . 127-8

... pp. 128-9
... pp. 1 29-130

[This Third Voyage was the most important expedition that had hitherto been
made by the English nation beyond the coasts of Europe. Of its numerical strength
we have no precise record ; but it could hardly have been less than from 300 to 400
men : a very considerable force for that time, to send on such a remote adventure.

Its tragical fate, so far from being a discouragement to English seamen, only
stung them to a manifold revenge ; and the baptism of blood at San Juan de Ulua
was afterwards expiated in the plunder of many an unfortunate Spanish ship.
Drake never rested till his “particular Indignation” of it was fully assuaged :
and it was in pursuit of that object, that we see him ( Vol. II. p. 269) on the nth
February, 1573, on the top of a very high tree on the dividing ridge of Central
America, gazing, for the first time, on the Pacific Ocean ; which sight moved him
to his famous Voyage round the World.

On the other hand, we must consider the Spaniards point of view. They were
alarmed in the highest degree at seeing a strong English fleet at the very door of
the Indies. If they came to San Juan de Ulua with impunity ; not Mexico itself,
nor Peru, nor the annual galleons that came from the Philippine islands would be safe
from these heretical islanders. We can appreciate their instant realisation of this
menace to their power ; also their quick sense of insult at the impudent audacity of
these Englishmen in coming thus unbidden to their hidden Treasure House ; and
how both these motives would occasion an almost frenzied purpose to destroy them,
any how, and at any cost. The stigma on them, therefore, comes not so much
from their fighting, as from their supreme treachery : but they seem to have chosen
treachery, as feeling they had no chance in a fair fight ; as indeed it actually turned
out. For in the fight itself between the ships, Hawkins was the victor. It was
the fired ships (a strange anticipation of those at Calais, twenty years later) that
compelled the English to abandon the Jesus , and the vast treasure that she
contained.

This Third Voyage is also memorable as being the first occasion on which English
keels furrowed that hitherto unknown sea, the Bay of Mexico. The Spaniards had
kept their West Indian navigations a dead secret. No foreigner, unless naturalised
by marriage and a long residence in Spain, had a chance of obtaining a license to
go to the West Indies. The English had no charts or maps to guide them, and
had to grope their way as best they could ; often only by compelling the help of the
local pilots whom they took prisoners.

In those days, the English always entered the West Indies by the South, by
Trinidad and the northern shore of South America ; and then felt their way north¬
wards as well as they were able : so that Mexico, though geographically much
nearer to England, was considered by them as much more remote and less known.
It was an excellent proof of Hawkins’s good seamanship, that the Minion ever
got out of the Bay of Mexico at all. It took them a month (16 Oct. — 16 Nov.
1568, p. 102) to do so : whereas, once clear of the West Indies, he sailed across the
much wider, but more familiar Atlantic in about six weeks’ time.]

I. — The Earliest TiDiNqq of the
DlJSAjSTER IN JEJnQLAND.

William Hawkins, junior, Esq.,
Governor of Plymouth.

[See pp. 84-8.]

Letter , on 3 rd December , 1568, to Sir
W i l li am C e c i l , informing him of
Spanish reports of the destruction of
his brother s Fleet in the Indies .

[This letter may be taken as indubitable evidence of the kind inten¬
tions of the Spaniards in respect of John Hawkins’s fleet, should they
be able to carry them out ; for it was not possible that any news of the
treachery and tragedy at San Juan de Ulua of the previous 23rd Septem¬
ber, could have got to Spain, and from thence to London, and so to
Plymouth, in the seventy-two days which had since elapsed. Drake (in
the Judith , a good sailer,//. 85, 88, 101, and coming straight home from
the scene of the catastrophe), did not reach Plymouth till the 22nd January
following, i.e. fifty days later than the date of this letter.]

[State Papers. Domestic. ELIZABETH. Vol. 48. No. 50.]

|Y bounden duty always had in remembrance. It
may please your Honour to be advertised that
there was certain news declared unto me by
Master William Wynter, Esquire, and he
should hear [had heard] it of Benedick Spinola,
of a letter he should [had] received out of Spain. GOD for¬
bid it should be true ! I hope it is but as the Spaniard
would have it.

The news should be [was] that my brother, John Haw¬
kins, was constrained to land, and to travel far
into the land, to make his traffic : and so by a great
number of men should be entrapped, and all put to
the sword ; with a great loss to the Spaniards also.

84 Forerunning rumour of the Disaster.

But if it should be true, as GOD forbid ! I shall have
cause to course them whiles I live, and my children after me.

Wherefore, I shall desire your Honour to be so good in this
cause, to call before your Honour, Benedick Spinola,
and to require him to declare you the truth in this matter,
and thereupon, as the cause requireth, to advertise the
Queen’s Majesty thereof; to the end there might be some
Stay made of King Phillip’s treasure here in these parts,
till there be sufficient recompense made for the great
wrong offered, and also other wrongs done before this.

And if it shall not please the Queen’s Majesty to meddle
in this matter (although Her Majesty shall be the greatest
loser therein !) yet that she would give her subjects leave
to meddle with them by law ; and then, I trust, we should
not only have recompense to the uttermost, but also do as
good service as is to be devised, with so little cost. And I
hope to please GOD best therein ; for that they are GOD’s
enemies !

This I thought good to advertise your Honour, to the end,
I might thereby be blameless therein, and you, thereby, to
see it redressed.

There was an Act and Decree directed unto Sir Arthur
Champernown and me, out of the [Lord] Admiral’s Court,
[of] which [the] effect was, that, by both our consents, the
ships with the goods sequestered in our hands should
be delivered unto the Flemings; and Master Kell and
his [accomplices, with their ships, to be released ;
always reserving unto every one, for the false keeping
and conservation of the ships and goods, their charges,
taxed and allowed by Sir Arthur and me, or one of us.
Which we have done accordingly; and now the Judge
mindeth to alter all ; wherefore, if occasion shall serve, I
shall desire your Honour’s help herein. And I shall daily
pray for your Honourable Estate long to endure.

From Plymouth, the 3rd day of December, 1568.

By your Honour’s always to command,

William Hawkins.

Addressed—

To the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil Knight,
Secretary to the Queen’s Majesty; give this, with all speed!

William Hawkins, junior, Esq.,
Governor of Plymouth.

Letter to the Privy Council , in the night of
the 22 nd fanuary , 1569, advising of
the arrival at Plymouth that nighty
of Francis Drane,
in the Judith.

[State Papers. Domestic. ELIZABETH . Vol. 49. N®. 37.]

[At the time, William Hawkins was writing this letter, his brother
Tohn was sailing homewards in the Minion , from Vigo to Mount’s Bay in
Cornwall : seep. 103.]

Right Honourable, and my singular Good Lords.

Y bounden duty always had in remembrance. It
may please your Honours to be advertised that
there is, this present night, arrived into the
port of Plymouth, one of the small barks [the
Judith ] of my brother John Hawkins’ Fleet,
from the Xndias; and for that I have neither writing from
him, nor anything else, I thought good, and my most bounden
duty so to do, to send [to] your Honours, the Captain of the
same bark, to the end the Queen’s Majesty may be, by your
Honours, thoroughly advertised of the whole proceedings of
this Voyage.

And for that my brother’s safe return is very dangerous
and doubtful, but that it resteth in GOD’s hands (who send
him well, if it be His blessed will !) ; and our adventures
[i.e.f of the two brothers' Hawkins], at this present time,
£2,000 [= about £16,000 now ] : besides many injuries we

86 The money stake of the two Hawkins. [YajlrSS

have sustained at the Spaniards’ hands heretofore. Where¬
fore, my humble suit unto your Honours is to, be a mean [s]
unto the Queen’s Majesty that I may be by some means,
recompensed, as time and occasion hereafter shall serve ;
either by some of those Spaniards’ goods stayed in these
West parts, or otherwise by some furtherance from the
Queen’s Majesty; whereby I may the better be able to recom¬
pense myself against those nations that hath offered these
wrongs.

And I shall daily pray for the long continuance of your
Honour’s estates, long to endure.

From Plymouth, the 22nd day of January, anno 1568

I569-J

By your Honours always to command,

William Hawkins.

And further, if it shall please your Honours to have some
consideration towards the poor state of our town. I assure
your Honours, it is not, of itself, able to provide two hundred¬
weight of powder, without a collection amongst ourselves :
and the inhabitants very poor besides. But to our powers,
we will be found ready for the defence of the same.

The great passing of Fleets, this summer [1568] , before
our haven, either with fleeing out of Flanders (which GOD
grant !) or otherwise the repair into Flanders out of Spain,
with aid, may be a means whereby the town may be put
to a great after deal : which GOD forbid ! Wherefore I
shall desire your Honours to consider of it.

This I thought good to advertise your Honours, for my
own discharge.

By your Honours always,

William Hawkins.

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable and my singular good Lords,
the Lords of the Privy Council ; give this at the Court with
all speed.

Haste! Plastel

William Hawkins, junior, Esq,
Governor of Plymouth.

Letter to Sir William Cecil^oh
the same night of the 22nd
^January , 1569.

[State Papers . Domestic. ELIZABETH, Vol. 49. No. 36.]

Right Honourable.

|Y bounden duty always had in remembrance. It
may please your Honour to be advertised that
this present hour there is come to Plymouth, one
of the small barks of my brother’s fleet ; and for
that I have neither writing, nor anything else
from him, I thought it good and my most bounden duty, to
send you the Captain of the same bark, being our kinsmen,
called Francis Drake ; for that he shall thoroughly inform
your Honour of the whole proceedings of these affairs, to the
end the Queen’s Majesty may be advertised of the same.

And for that it doth plainly appear of their manifest
injuries from time to time offered; and our losses only in
this Voyage £ 2,000 [= £16,000^010] at least; besides my
brother’s absence (which unto me is more grief than any
other thing in this world), whom I trust, as GOD hath pre¬
served, will likewise preserve and send well home in safety :
in the meantime, my humble suit unto your Honour is,
that the Queen’s Majesty will, when time shall serve, see
me her humble and obedient subject, partly recompensed
of those Spaniards’ goods here stayed. And further, if it shall
please Her Grace to give me leave to work my own force
against them, to the end I may be the better recompensed :
I shall be the more bound unto Her Highness : who I pray

88 The Judith is a very good sailer.

GOD long to live to the Glory of GOD, and the comfort of
her subjects.

If I may have any warrant from Her Majesty, or from
your Honour ; I shall be glad to set forth four ships of mv
own presently [at once],

I have already commission from the Cardinal Chatil-
lion for one ship to serve the Princes of Navarre and
Conde : but I may not presume any further, without com¬
mission.

In these things, I shall desire your Honour to be adver¬
tised by my servant, Francis Drake; and I shall daily pray
for your Honour’s estate long to endure.

From Plymouth, the 20th of January, at night, 1568
[i.e., 1569].

By your Honour’s,

William Hawkins.

For the small bark [the Judith ] that is come home, if I
might be so bold [as] to cause her to be [apjpraised by four
honest men, to the end the Adventurers might be duly
answered ; I would, for that she is a very good sailer, bestow
a £100 [£800 now] upon her presently [at once].

Our town is very weak, and hath no help of the Prince:
wherefore I shall most humbly desire your Honour to be a
help for some allowance for us.

By your Honour’s,

William Hawkins.

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil, Chief
Secretary to the Queen’s Majesty; give this, at the Court,
with all speed !

William Hawkins, junior, Esq.
Governor of Plymouth.

Letter to Sir William Cecil , of
27 th January , 1569, announcing the
arrival of his brother at
Mount's Bay.

[State Papers. Domestic. ELIZABETH. Vol. 49. No. 42.]

Right Honourable.

Y bounden duty always had in remembrance. It
may please your Honour to be advertised, that I
am credibly informed of my brother’s arrival [on
the 25 th January , see p. 103] with the Minion , in
Mount’s Bay, in Cornwall. Not from him, nor
any of his company; but by one of the Mount, [who] for
good will, came immediately away in post, upon the speech
of one of his men who was sent aland for help of men, and
also for cables and anchors, for that they had but one : and
their men [are] greatly weakened by reason he put ashore [on
the 8th of October , 1568] in the Indias, a hundred of his men,
for the safeguard of the rest ; and also that he should [had]
cast overboard, not five days before [i.e., between the 3rd — 8th
of October , 1568] forty-five men more ; and the rest, being
alive, were fain to live seven days upon an ox-hide.

Whereupon, the wind being easterly ; I sent away for his
succour, a bark with thirty-four mariners, store of fresh
victuals, two anchors, three cables, and store of small warps,
with other necessaries, as I thought good.

90 The Spanish treasure sent to London.

I am assured to hear from himself, this night at the
furthest ; and then I will certify your Honour, with speed,
again.

And so, for this time, I leave to trouble your Honour any
further; praying for the increase of your Honour’s estate.

From Plymouth, the 27th of January, 1568 [i.e., 1569].

Sir Arthur Champernown hath willed me to advertise
your Honour, that, to-morrow next, he mindeth depart out
of Plymouth, with all the treasure, towards Exeter ; and to
be there, the next day following, where he mindeth to stay
till Saturday next following. He mindeth to provide, for
the safe conduct of the same, fifty horsemen, and fifty foot¬
men, with artillery and things necessary for the same; which
this bearer can declare to your Honour all at large : and then
to come with the treasure, with as much diligence as is
possible. Praying your Honour to advertise, by post, if this
determination like you not ; and he will be willing to follow
your Honour’s determination to the contrary.

From Plymouth, ut supra.

By your Honour’s, always to command,

William Hawkins.

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil Knight,
Chief Secretary to the Queen’s Majesty; give this, at the
Court, with all haste possible.

Haste! Haste! Post Haste!

€ QL true

declaration of tfie

troublesome borage of

£p. Jo!)n ^atofetns to tl)e
partg of Guinea anti tl)e
(HHe0t 3int>te& tn tl)e

rear?! of our Horn

1 567 anti 1568.

it gjmprmtet) at lonoon,
in Paul’s Cfwtcbparo, Op Cfjomas
Purfoot for Pucas garrison,
Dtoelling at tfje sign
of tfjc Crane.

^ Here followeth a Note or Declaration of
the troublesome V oyage made with the
Jesus, the Minion, and four other
ships to the parts of Guinea in the
years 1567 and 1568, by
John H A WKI NS.

r Also in Hakluyt, 1589.]

He ships departed from Plymouth, the 2nd
day of October, anno 156 7 ; and had reason¬
able weather until the 7th day, at which
time, some 40 leagues north from Cape
Finisterre, there arose an extreme storm,
which continued four days, in such sort
that the fleet was dispersed, and all our
great boats lost, and the Jesus, our chief
ship, in such case as not thought able to serve the voyage :
whereupon, in the same storm, we set our course homeward,
determining to give over the voyage. But the nth day of
the same month, the wind changed, with fair weather :
whereby we were animated to follow our enterprise ; and so
did, directing our course to the isles of the Grand Canaries ;
where, according to an order before prescribed, all our ships,
before dispersed, met in one of those islands, called Gomera.

There we took water, and departed from thence, the 4th
day of November, towards the coast of Guinea; and arrived

94 Kidnapping on the African Coast. [Sir^r^w^:

at Cape de Verde the 18th day of November, where we
landed 150 men, hoping to obtain some Negroes : where
we got but few, and those with great hurt and damage to our
men, which chiefly proceeded of their envenomed arrows.
And although in the beginning, they seemed to be but small
hurts : yet there hardly escaped any that had blood drawn of
them, but died in strange sort, with their mouths shut some
ten days before they died, and after their wounds were whole.
Where I myself had one of the greatest wounds ; yet, thanks
be to GOD ! escaped.

From thence, we passed the time upon the coast of Guinea,
searching with all diligence the rivers, from Rio Grande unto
Sierra Leone, till the 12th of January [1568] ; in which time,
we had not got together 150 Negrose [Negroes] : yet, not¬
withstanding the sickness of our men, and the late time of
the year commanded us away.

Thus having nothing wherewith to seek the coast of the
West Indias, I was, with the rest of our company, in consul¬
tation, to go to the Coast of the Mine [El Mina} near Cape
Coast Castle] ; hoping there to have obtained some gold for our
wares, and thereby to have defended [defrayed] our charges :
but even, in that present instant, there came to us a Negro
sent from a king oppressed by other kings his neighbours,
desiring our aid, with promise that as many Negrose as by
these wars might be obtained, as well of his part as of ours,
should be at our pleasure.

Whereupon we concluded to give aid, and sent 120 of our
men ; which the 15th of January [1568] assaulted a town of
the Negrose [Negroes], our ally’s adversaries, which had in it
8,000 inhabitants. It was very strongly impaled and fenced,
after their manner ; and it was so well defended that our men
prevailed not, but lost six men, and forty hurt. So that our men
sent forthwith to me for more help : whereupon considering
that the good success of this enterprise might highly further
the commodity of our voyage, I went myself ; and with the
help of the King of our side, assaulted the town, both by land
and sea : and very hardly, with fire (their houses being covered
with dry palm leaves), obtained the town and put the inhabi¬
tants to flight.

There we took 250 persons (men, women, and children),
and by our friend the King of our side, there were taken 600

Sir^p^8s69-] ^I0 DE LA Hacha again occupied. 95

prisoners whereof we hoped to have had our choice : but the
Negro (in which nation is seldom or never found the truth)
meant nothing less. For that night, he removed his camp
and prisoners : so that we were fain to be content with those
few, which we had got ourselves.

IT Now had we obtained between 400 and 500 Negrose,
wherewith we thought it somewhat reasonable to seek the
coast of the West Indians; and there for our Negrose and
our other merchandise, we hoped to obtain whereof to counter¬
vail our charges, with some gains.

Whereunto we proceeded with all diligence, furnished our
watering, took fuel, and departed the coast of Guinea, the
3rd of February, continuing at the sea, with a passage more
hard than before hath been accustomed, till the 27th day of
March, on which day, we had sight of an island called
Dominica, upon the coast of the West Indies, in 140 N.

From thence, we coasted from place to place, making our
traffic with the Spaniards as we might ; somewhat hardly,
because the King had straitly commanded all his Governors
in those parts, by no means, to suffer any trade to be made
with us.

Notwithstanding, we had reasonable trade and courteous
entertainment, from the isle of Margarita, unto Cartagena,
without anything greatly worth the noting : saving at Cape
de la Vela, in a town called Rio de la Hacha (from whence
come all the pearls), the Treasurer [ Captain John Lovell
with young Francis Drake ( then on his first visit to West
Indies , had thought themselves wronged here , in 1565-66],
who had charge there, would, by no means, agree to any
trade, or suffer us to take water. He had fortified his
town with divers Bulwarks [forts] in all places where it
might be entered ; and furnished himself with a hundred
harquebussiers : so that he thought to have enforced us
by famine [ including thirst ], to have put a land our
Negrose. Of which purpose, he had not greatly failed,
unless we had by force entered the town : which (after we
could by no means obtain his favour) we were enforced to do.
And so, with 200 men, brake in upon their Bulwarks, and
entered the town ; with the loss of only two men of our part ;

96 They seek Florida first, then Mexico. [^spr^Sj.

and no hurt done to the Spaniards ; because after their volley
of shot discharged, they all fled.

H Thus having the town, with some circumstance [negotia¬
tions], as partly by the Spaniards’ desire of Negroes, and partly
by the friendship of the Treasurer, we obtained a secret trade :
whereupon, the Spaniards resorted to us by night, and bought
of us to the number of 200 Negroes.

In all other places, where we traded, the Spanish inhabi¬
tants were glad of us, and traded willingly.

At Cartagena, the last town we thought to have seen on
the coast, we could, by no means, obtain to come with any
Spaniard ; the Governor was so strait. And because our
trade was so near[ly] finished, we thought it not good either
to adventure any landing, or to detract further time ; but, in
peace, departed from thence, the 24th of July: hoping to
have escaped the time of their storms, which then, soon after,
begin to reign ; the which they call Furicanos [hurricanes].

But passing by the west end of Cuba, towards the coast
of Florida, there happened to us, the 12th day of August, an
extreme storm, which continued by the space of four days ;
which did so beat the Jesus , that we cut down all her higher
buildings : her rudder also was sore[ly] shaken, and withal
she was in so extreme a leak, that we were rather upon the
point to leave her, than to keep her any longer.

Yet hoping to bring all to good pass, we sought the coast
of Florida ; where we found no place nor haven for our ships,
because of the shallowness of the coast.

Thus being in greater despair, and taken with a new storm
which continued another three days; we were enforced to
take for our succour the port which serveth the city of Mexico,
called Saint John de Lye [San Juan de Ulna] ; which standeth
in 190 N.

In seeking of which port, we took, in our way, three ships,
which carried passengers to the number of a hundred : which
passengers we hoped should be a means to us, the better to
obtain victuals for our money, and a quiet place for the re¬
pairing of our fleet.

Shortly after this, the 16th of September, we entered the
port of Saint Jon de lue [San Juan de Ulua ] ; and in our
entry, the Spaniards thinking us to be the Fleet of Spain, the

sirJp?JwIk5i69s;] Arrival at San Juan de Ulua. 97

Chief Officers of the country came aboard us : who, being
deceived of their expectation, were greatly dismayed ; but
immediately when they saw our demand was nothing but
victuals, were recomforted.

I found also in the same port, twelve ships which had in
them, by report £200,000 [ = nearly two millions sterling now]
in gold and silver. All which, being in my possession, with
the King’s island, as also the passengers before stayed in my
way thitherward, I set at liberty, without the taking from
them, the weight of a groat.

Only because I would not be delayed of my despatch, I
stayed two men of estimation ; and sent post immediately to
Mexico (which was 200 miles from us) to the Presidents and
Council there, shewing them of our arrival there, by the force
of weather, and the necessity of the repair of our ships, and
victuals : which wants we required, as friends to King Phillip,
to be furnished of for our money: and that the Presidents
and Councilthere, should with all convenient speed take order
that, at the arrival of the Spanish Fleet, which was daily
looked for, there might no cause of quarrel rise between us
and them ; but for the better maintenance of amity, their
commandment might be had in that behalf.

This message was sent away the 16th day of September,
at night, being the very day of our arrival.

In the next morning, which was the 17th day of the same
month, we saw open of the haven thirteen great ships ; and
understanding them to be the Fleet of Spain, I sent immedi¬
ately to advertise the General of the Fleet, of my being there :
giving him to understand that “ Before I would suffer them to
enter the port, there should be some order of Conditions
passed between us, for our safe being there, and maintenance
of peace.”

Now it is to be understood, that this port is a little island
of stones, not three feet above the water in the highest place ;
and but a bow shot of length any way. This island standeth
from the mainland, two bow shots or more. Also it is to be
understood that there is not in all this coast, any other place
for ships to arrive in safety, because the north wind hath
there such violence that, unless the ships be very safely
moored with their anchors fastened upon this island : there

G 4

98 The Fleet of Spain off the Harbour. [SirJprSgw^9s:

is no remedy for [on account of] the north winds, but death.
Also the place of the haven was so little, that, of necessity,
the ships must ride one aboard [touching] the other : so that
we could not give place to them, nor they to us.

And here I began to bewail that which after followed, for
now, said I, “ I am in two dangers ; and forced to receive the
one of them.” That was, either I must have kept the Fleet
from entering the port, the which, with GOD’s help, I was
very well able to do : or else suffer them to enter in, with
their accustomed treason, which they never fail to execute
where they may have opportunity, or circumvent it by any
means. If I had kept them out, then had there been present
shipwreck of all the Fleet, which amounted in value to
6,000,000 [crowns] which was in value [at 6s. the crown]
£1,800,000 [ = about four millions and a half now] which I
considered I was not able to answer ; fearing the Queen’s
Majesty’s indignation in so weighty a matter.

Thus revolving with myself the doubts ; I thought it
rather better to abide the jutt of the uncertainty, than the
certainty. The uncertain doubt I accounted, was their
treason ; which, by good policy, I hoped might be prevented :
and therefore as choosing the least mischief, I proceeded to
Conditions.

Now was our first messenger come and returned from the
Fleet, with report of the arrival of a Viceroy ; so that he
had authority both in all this Province of Mexico otherwise
called Nova Hispania, and in the sea. Who sent us word
that “ We should send our Conditions, which, of his part,
should (for the better maintenance of amity between the
Princes), be both favourably granted, and faithfully per¬
formed ” : with many fair words, “ how passing the coast
of the Indies, he had understood of our honest behaviour
towards the inhabitants where we had to do ; as well else¬
where, as in the same port,” the which I let pass.

Thus following our demand, we required,

Victuals for our money, and license to sell as much
wares as might furnish our wants.

That there might be, of either part, twelve gentlemen
as hostages for the maintenance of peace.

That the island, for our better safety, might be in our
own possession, during our abode there ; and such ord-

^sprbgtsSl Conditions of Peace are proclaimed. 99

nance as was planted in the same island : which were
eleven pieces of brass.

And that no Spaniard might land in the island, with
any kind of weapon.

These Conditions, at the first, he somewhat misliked ;
chiefly the guard of the island to be in our own keeping : which
if they had had, we had soon known our fare. For with the
first north wind, they had cut our cables, and our ships had
gone ashore. But in the end, he concluded to our request,
bringing the twelve hostages [down] to ten : which, with all
speed, of either part, were received ; with a writing from the
Viceroy signed with his hand, and sealed with his seal, of all
the Conditions concluded.

Forthwith a trumpet was blown ; with commandment, that
none, of either part, should be means to violate the peace,
upon pain of death.

And further, it was concluded, that the two Generals of
the Fleets should meet, and give faith each to the other,
for the performance of the premisses. Which was so done.

Thus at the end of three days, all was concluded ; and the
Fleet entered the port : we saluting one another, as the
manner of the sea doth require.

Thus, as I said before, Thursday [1.6th] 9 we entered the
port; Friday [17^], we saw the Fleet; and on Monday [2,0th]
at night, they entered the port.

Then we laboured two days, placing the English ships by
themselves, and the Spanish ships by themselves ; and the
Captains of each part, and inferior men of their parts,
promising great amity of all sides. Which even, as with all
fidelity, was meant of our part : so the Spaniards meant
nothing less of their parts : but having furnished themselves
from the mainland, with a supply of men, to the number of
1,000 ; they meant, the next Thursday, being the 23rd of
September, at dinner time, to set upon us, of all sides.

The same Thursday, in the morning, the treason being at
hand, some appearance shewed ; as shifting of weapons from
ship to ship, planting and bending of ordnance from the ship
to the island where our men warded, passing to and fro of
companies of men more than required for their necessary
business, and many other ill likelihoods, which caused us to

ioo Unmasking of the Spaniards’ treason.

have a vehement suspicion ; and therewithal, sent to the
Viceroy, to inquire what was meant by it.

Who sent, immediately, straight commandment to unplant
all suspicious things; and also sent word that “he, on
the faith of Viceroy, would be our defence from all
villains.”

Yet we, not being satisfied with this answer (because we
suspected a great number of men to be hid in a great ship, of
goo tons, which was moored next unto the Minion ), sent again
to the Viceroy, the Master of the Jesus (who had the Spanish
tongue), and required to be satisfied if any such thing were,
or not.

The Viceroy seeing that the treason must be discovered ;
forthwith stayed our Master, blew the trumpet, and set upon
us of all sides.

Our men, which warded ashore, being stricken with
sudden fear, gave place, fled, and sought to recover succour
from the ships. The Spaniards, being provided before for
the purpose, landed in all places in multitudes from their
ships, which they might easily do without boats ; and slew
all our men ashore without mercy. A few of them escaped
aboard the Jesus.

The great ship, which had by the estimation, 300 men
secretly placed in her, immediately fell aboard the Minion ;
which (by GOD’s appointment) (in the time of suspicion we
had, which was only half an hour) the Minion was made
ready to avoid, and so loosing her head fasts, and hauling
away by the stern fasts she was gotten out. Thus, with
GOD’s help, she defended the violence of the first brunt of
these 300 men.

The Minion being passed out, they came aboard the Jesus ;
which also with very much ado, and the loss of many of our
men, was defended, and they kept out.

Then were there also two other ships that assaulted the
Jesus at the same instant; so that she had [a] hard getting
loose : but yet, with some time, we had cut our head fasts,
and gotten out by the stern fasts.

Now when the Jesus and the Minion were gotten abroad,
two ships’ length from the Spanish Fleet, the fight began hot
of all sides [that is, outside or in the mouth of the harbour] : so
that, within one hour, the admiral [Flag Ship] of the Spaniards

sirsprSgwiks69s'] Sinking of English and Spanish Ships, ioi

was supposed to be sunk, their vice admiral burned, and one
other of their principal ships supposed to be sunk. So that
the ships were little able to annoy us.

Then it is to be understood that all the ordnance upon the
Island was in the Spaniards’ hands, which did us so great
annoyance, that it cut all the masts and yards of the Jesus ;
in such sort that there was no hope to carry her away. Also
it sank all our small ships.

Whereupon, we determined to place the Jesus on that side
of the Minion , that she might abide all the battery from the
land, and so be a defence for the Minion till night ; and
then to take such relief of victuals and other necessaries
from the Jesus , as time would suffer us, and so to leave her.

As we were thus determining, and had placed the Minion
[away] from the shot of the land ; suddenly, the Spaniards
had fired two great ships, which were coming directly with
us.

Having no means to avoid the fire, it bred among our men
a marvellous fear: so that some said, “ Let us depart with
the Minion ! ” Others said, “ Let us see whether the wind
will carry the fire from us ! ” But, to be short, the Minion's
men, which had always their sails in a readiness, thought to
make sure work ; and so, without either consent of the Captain
or Master, cut their sail ; so that, very hardly, I was re¬
ceived into the Minion .

The most part of the men that were left alive in the Jesus ,
made shift, and followed the Minion in a small boat. The rest,
which the little boat was not able to receive, were enforced to
abide the mercy of the Spaniards; which I doubt was very little.

So with the Minion only, and the Judith , a small bark of
50 tons, we escaped : which bark, the same night, forsook us
in our great misery.

We were now removed with the Minion from the Spanish
ships two bow shots ; and there rode all that night.

The next morning [24 th], we recovered an island, a mile
from the Spaniards : where there took us a north wind : and
being left only with two anchors and two cables (for in this
conflict, we lost three cables and two anchors), we thought
always upon death, which ever was present ; but GOD pre¬
served us to a longer time.

The weather waxed reasonable, and the Saturday [25 th] we

102 Fearful Famine on board the Minion. [SirJpSgw^

set sail ; and having a great number of men and little victuals,
our hope of life waxed less and less. Some desired to yield
to the Spaniards. Some rather desired to obtain a place,
where they might give themselves to the infidels [Indians],
And some hath rather abide with a little pittance, the mercy
of GOD at sea.

So thus, with many sorrowful hearts, we wandered in an
unknown sea, by the space of fourteen days, till hunger
enforced us to seek the land. For hides were thought very
good meat ; rats, cats, mice, and dogs, none escaped that
might be got. Parrots and monkeys that were had in great
price [were great pets] were thought there very profitable if
they served the turn of one dinner.

Thus, in the end, the 8th day of October, we came to the
land, in the bottom [or rather , at the east] of the Bay of
Mexico in 33J0 N. lat., where we hoped to have found
inhabitants of the Spaniards, relief of victuals, and
place for the repair of our ship : which was so sore beaten
with shot from our enemies, and bruised with [the] shooting
of our own ordnance ; that our weary and weak arms were
scarce able to defend and keep out the water. [They would
have found all the three things they needed , had they struck the
coast ten leagues to the westward , where Tampico was situated , at
the mouth of the Panuco ; see pp . 186, 232-3.]

But all things happened to the contrary, for we found
neither people, victuals, nor haven of relief ; but a place,
where, having fair weather, we might, with some peril, land a
boat.

Our people being forced with hunger, desired to be set a
land ; whereunto I concluded. And such as were willing to
land, I put them apart ; and such as were desirous to go
homewards, I put apart. So that they were indifferently
parted ; a hundred [the exact number landed was 114, see p . 187]
of one side, and a hundred of the other side.

These hundred men we set a land, with all diligence, in
this little place before said : which being landed, we deter¬
mined there to refresh our water; and so, with our little
remain of victuals, to take the sea.

The next day, having a land with me, fifty of our hundred
men that remained, for the speedier preparing of our water

S^«;] A REMNANT ONLY REACH ENGLAND. IO3

aboard ; there arose an extreme storm ; so that, in three days
we could by no means repair to our ship. The ship also was
in such peril, that, every hour, we looked for shipwreck ; but
yet GOD again had mercy on us, and sent fair weather.

We had aboard our water, and departed the 16th of
October ; after which day, we had fair and prosperous weather
till the 16th of November, which day, GOD be praised ! we
were clear from the coast of the Indians, and out of the
channel and Gulf of Bahama, which is between the Cape of
Florida, and the island of Cuba.

After this, growing near to the cold country; our men
being oppressed with famine, died continually : and they that
were left, grew into such weakness, that we were scarcely able
to manure [manoeuvre] our ship.

The wind being always ill for us to recover England, we
determined to go with Galicia in Spain ; with the intent there
to relieve our company, and other extreme wants.

Being arrived the last day of December in a place near
unto Vigo, called Ponte Vedra, our men, with excess of fresh
meat, grew into miserable diseases ; and a great part of them
died.

This matter was borne out [i.e., their crippled condition was
concealed] as long as it might be : but in the end, although
there was none of our men suffered to go a land : yet, by the
access of the Spaniards, our feebleness was known to them ;
whereupon they ceased not to seek by all means to betray us.

But, with all speed possible, we departed to Vigo ; where
we had some help of certain English ships, and twelve fresh
men wherewith we repaired our wants as we might.

And departing, the 20th of January, 1569, we arrived in
Mount’s Bay in Cornwall, the 25th of the same month.
Praised be GOD therefore !

If If all the miseries and troublesome affairs of this
Sorrowful Voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly
written ; there should need a painful man with his pen, and
as great a time as he [i.e., John Fox] had, that wrote the
Lives and Deaths of the Martyrs. John Hawkins.

FINIS.

104

III. — The Depositions in the E n q l i £ h
Admiralty Court.

The Depositions in the Admiralty Court
as to the Fight at San 'Juan de Ulua ,
and the English losses there sustained ,
23 rd March , 1569.

Hese are preserved in State Papers , Dom. Eliz ., July , 1569,
Vol. 53, in the Public Record Office, London ; and throw a
flood of light on many incidents of the fight, and on the
prices of Negroes and other “wares” in the West Indies at
this time.

The Depositions were made to eleven Interrogatories, and to a Schedule
of values consisting of twenty-seven Items. The answers vary in impor¬
tance as in fulness, according to the opportunities and position of the
several Deponents in the fleet. The whole purpose of the Depositions
was to get up the biggest possible bill against the King of Spain for the
injuries received ; as a justification and groundwork for further attacks on
him : as Drake thought and afterwards did.

We first give the testimony of one of the earliest of English trafficers
in Spanish ships, to Mexico ; but who, however, was not with Hawkins in
any of these Voyages. His deposition was evidently made to show, by an
independent and competent authority, what were the current prices at
Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico, of such goods as Hawkins had been
spoiled of at San Juan de Ulua.

Principally, from this witness, William Fowler, we get the following
table of monetary values, on the basis, as monetary unit, of the Rial de
Plata , the “ Rial of Silver ” then roughly considered as equal to the
English Sixpence.

23 ^^:]Equivalent values ofWest Indian coins. 105

English^ Money. I560— I58O A.D. _ Spanish. _

[. Modern Contemporary

approximate current Peso of Peso of

value x 8.]

value.

Rials. Silver.

Gold.

[40^.]

0 (p.285) Peso. C orient e silver...

10 — I

[44*]

Spanish Ducat .

The normal Peso de '

[53 U

Plata in the West
Indies . .

• 13 = 1*

’ The Peso de Plata in

[s&O

Mexico, Peru, and
the inland districts

• 14 = 1

of the Spanish Main.

[64 U

Peso d'Oro .

l6 =

[26OJ.]

Mark/. 285 .

65 ey2

* This is what is meant, when the word Peso only is used. It was an English ounce (troy
weight) of silver ; and was the monetary Unit of Central America ; afterwards known as the
Piece of Eight, and is the Mexican dollar of the present day. [The English Mint value for which
is about 4s. 3d., it being below the English Standard of fineness. — Kelly, Cambist , i. 391. Ed.
1811.]

f Always distinguished as the Peso of Gold.

In order to get some approximate corresponding modern value ; the
equivalents multiplied by eight are shown within square brackets [ ].
Some of the amounts seem marvellously great : but, of course, Hawkins
only took those things with him which brought the highest prices ; and
that was why he stained himself and England with Negro-hunting and
Negro slavery.

Although it is no justification whatever, it is clear, from ft. 29, that
Hawkins learnt the trade of slave-hunting from the Portuguese.

Then we have in the State P afters, the depositions of Sir John Hawkins
himself.

Suppressing all legal verbiage, we give the substance of his depositions ;
and then add any additional points from those of the following eye-wit¬

nesses,

[Captain Thomas Hampton, cet. 44, Captain of the Minion .]

William Clarke, cet. 28, one of the four Merchants \Sufter cargoes^
appointed for the fleet ; who, sailing in the William and John ,
escaped the Fight.

John Tommes, cet. 27, servant to Sir John, and sailing with him
in the Jesus.

Jean Turren, cet. 30, Trumpeter of the Jesus.

Humphrey Fones, cet. 25, Steward of the Angel.

It is curious that there is no deposition by Drake included in this
Series, though he was present at the Fight.

The William and John was not at the Fight ; but was represented, as
the sixth ship of the original Squadron, by a caravel captured at sea, and
christened the Grace of God , a remarkable name for a slaver.

io6

W illiam Fowler , of Ratcliff e, in
the kingdom of England , merchant , of
about 3 8 years of age ; witnesseth ,

E knoweth shipping to be very dear both at
Seville in Andalusia, in Spain; and at the
harbour of la Vera Cruz [the true Cross] in
the West Indias. For the ton freight is 30
Ducats [=£8 5s. =£66 now] from Seville
to la Vera Cruz; and so much money
more, from la Vera Cruz to Seville : which,
in the whole, is 60 Ducats [£16 ios.=
£132 now] the ton freight.

For he hath traded from Seville, to the said port of la Vera
Cruz, [the city of] Mexico, and other places in the West
Indies ; hath been there six several times; hath carried wares
to and fro, from the same places ; and hath paid for freight,
after the like rate.

That by the experience of the trade which he hath had to and
at the said place, called la Vera Cruz, and other the chief
places of the West Indias ; this Deponent knoweth that a
Negro of a good stature and young of years is worth, and is
commonly bought and sold there at Mexico, and the Mainland
of the West Indias, for 400, 500, and 600 pesos [ = £100,
£125, or £150 —or about £ 800 , £1,000, or £1,200 now].

For if a Negro be a Bossale , that is to say, “ ignorant
of the Spanish or Portuguese tongue,” then he or she is
commonly sold for 400 and 450 pesos [=£100 or £112
ios.].

But if the Negro can speak any of the foresaid
languages anything indifferently, who is called Ladinos ,
then the same Negro is commonly sold for 500 and 600
pesos [=£125, or £150] ; as the Negro is of choice, and
young of years.

*3 M^chTiS] The current prices at Vera Cruz. 107

And this Deponent saith that the best trade in those places
is of Negroes : the trade whereof he hath used, and hath sold
Negroes at the said places ; and seen other merchants likewise
sell their Negroes there, divers times.

Which Negroes, being carried into the inner and farther
parts of the Mainland of Peru, be commonly sold there for
800 and goo pesos of 14 Rials . [The inland price of a Negro
therefore varied from £280 to £315= about £2,240 to £2,480].

The Peso being worth at la Vera Cruz 13 Rials of Plate
of the Spanish coin, being 6s. 8d. sterling: and in other
places of Mexico, Peru, and Mainland the said Peso is worth
14 Rials, which is 7s. sterling.

A Fardel of Linen Cloth called Ordmardas or Preselias, is
worth and commonly sold at la Vera Cruz for 250 pesos
of 13 Rials [@ 6s. 8d. —about £83] which is after the rate of
3,250 Rials the Fardel.

And the Linen Cloth called Roanes is sold there after the
rate of 226 pesos the Fardel, which is 2,940 Rials. For this
Deponent hath sold, and seen other merchants sell, divers
times, Linen Cloth after that rate at la Vera Cruz and Mexico.

That a lb. of Magaritas [? Periwinkles ; the word also means
Pearls] is worth at la Vera Cruz, 18 and 20 Rials [ = gs. and
1 os. = £3 12s. and £4 now] for he hath sold, and seen other
merchants so sell, there, commonly after that rate. Notwith¬
standing he saith that he hath sold a lb. of Margaritas
at la Vera Cruz for 30 Rials and sometime 3 pesos (39 Rials)
[—15s. and 19s. 6d.—£6 and £7 16s. now] .

That pewter vessel and kerseys called “ Hampshire ” and
“Northerns” be commonly worth and sold at la Vera Cruz
for the several prices following,

1 lb. (being 16 ounces) of Pewter at 4, and sometimes
5 Rials [2 s. and 2 s. 6d.=i6s. and £1 now].

The good “Hampshire Kersey,” containing commonly
18 Vares [The Vare was 33! English inches. Kelly , idem.],
which is about 17 English yards ; at 36 ducats [which is
after 2 ducats , or 22 Rials the Vare].

io8 The Deposition of William Fowler. [23

And the “ Northern Kersey” [of the same length ], for
21J ducats [=234 Rials] which is after 13 Rials the
Vare.

A piece of Cotton of 61 Vares [about 57 yards ] of length,
is worth and is commonly sold at la Vera Cruz for 30J ducats
which is after 5^ Rials [=25. gd.]the Vare [or nearly 3s. a Yard].

A Quintall [100 lbs.] of Wax is worth commonly at Vera
Cruz, 40 ducats [=£n=about £88 now].

A Butt [130 gallons] of Seek [Sack, i.e ., our modern Sherry]
is worth commonly at la Vera Cruz, 100 pesos [£33 6s. 8d.
—about £266 now].

Deposition? A£ to the Fiqht, etc.
The Deposition of William Clarke.

E was entertained by Sir William Garrard and
others of the Company to sail in the said fleet as
a Merchant [Supercargo], to assist the said John
Hawkins in state of traffic, and making accounts
of the same voyage : and sailed in the William

and John.

All the treasure was, immediately after the traffic, brought
on board the Jesus of Lubeck, and left there, by the consent
and knowledge of this Deponent, in the custody of the said
John Hawkins, to the use of the said Company.

The £200 of plate was put in a chest ; and the 22,000
Pesos of Gold into little chests and bags.

This Examinate was present at all the traffics and truck of
merchandize ; and was commonly aboard the Jesus while she
remained upon any coast where the traffic was : being one of
four specially appointed, which made also the accounts, and
kept the same.

Being near Cape St. Antonio, the William and John,
wherein this Deponent then sailed, was separated from the
other ships of the Fleet, in a great storm happening about

f" March^S:] Sw°RN Depositions as to the Fight. 109

the 15th day of August last. Since which time he never had
sight of the said Fleet ; but was driven to and from, with
much contrary winds, till, at the last, the William and John ,
without any other company of ships, arrived upon the coast
of Ireland, in the month of February last [1569].

The Deposition of John Hawkins, Esq.

]N the year 156 7, the articulate Sir William
Garrard Knight, Rowland Heyward Aider-
man of London, and others joined with them in
Society and Company, did furnish a Fleet of six
ships for a voyage to the coast of Guinea and
other foreign regions, for merchandize to be had with the
inhabitants of those countries. In which respect, they, the
said Sir William Garrard and Company, did also then
provide, prepare, and lade in those ships much wares and
merchandize necessary and meet for those parts : the whole
charges of which preparation amounted to the sum of about
£16,500 [—about £130,000].

That by Commission of the said Sir William Garrard
and others of his Company, who had the direction of that
Navigation and Voyage, he was appointed and authorized
General of the said Fleet : and had to him committed, by
their authority, not only the chief rule, government, and
order of the said Fleet ; but also of the state of Traffic in
such places as he should arrive and come unto. The which
government, he took upon him accordingly, and went upon
the same voyage, doing and procuring the affairs of the said
Company, according to the trust given. And in the be¬
ginning of October was twelve month, being in the said year
1567, he departed from Plymouth, with said Fleet towards
the coast of Guinea.

That he, with the Fleet aforesaid, did arrive upon the
coast of Guinea, in November, anno 156 7 ; where this
Deponent, and other Merchants [Supercargoes] appointed by
the said Company for the assistance of traffic, did purchase [!]
and buy [!] a good quantity of Negroes. And from thence
departed with them unto the West Indies. In which

no Sworn Depositions as to the Fight,

country he, and William Clarke, with other Factors
[i Supercargoes ], did traffic with the inhabitants there : and did
receive, in truck and exchange of wares and commodities, to
the said Company’s use and behalf, so much treasure and
commodities as amounted to the sum of 29,743 Pesos of
Gold [@ 85. each—£ 11,897 4 s.=about £100,000 now]. Which
treasure, upon the said traffic, was brought wholly, from
time to time, upon board the Jesus of Lubeck, wherein he
sailed himself, by order and consent of the said Merchants.

Of which treasure there were —

22,000 Pesos of Gold, in bars and pieces of gold.

4,000 Pesos of Silver, in Coriente .

£200 sterling in divers sorts of plate.

The rest was in other commodities purchased and bought
in the said parts of the West Indies.

After the traffic was made of the treasure and other com¬
modities, the Fleet whereof he had charge and government,
did set their course from Cartagena, a place in the West
Indies, to the Cape called St. Antonio, in the west point of
the island of Cuba.

And when the said Fleet approached near to the said
Cape, they were constrained by force of weather to enter
into the Bay of Mexico, not being able to recover the said
Cape, or to keep the course determined ; and, through cruel
storms and contrary winds, were forced to enter the haven of
St. John de Lowe [San Juan de Ulua] ; where this Deponent
arrived the 16th of September last or thereabouts, minding
for the time of his there abode and tarriance to behave him¬
self there towards the King of Spain’s subjects in quiet and
loving manner; and, after a small abode, and some refreshing
had there, to depart towards England.

The 20th day of the said month of September last, there
arrived in the said haven, the new Viceroy of Mexico, and the
General of the Spanish fleet of thirteen great ships: the
which Viceroy General and their company did outwardly
make a resemblance and show of amity and peace. And
made proclamation by sound of trumpet, which this Deponent
did hear : the effect whereof was, that “ no violence nor out-

Ma?chwi jS’.] Sworn Depositions as to the Fight, iii

rageous dealing should be showed to the Englishmen, but
they should be courteously entertained, upon pain of death.”
And to that effect, amongst other things, the said Viceroy
gave his promise, by writing subscribed and sealed with his
hand and seal ; which was delivered to this Deponent. And
for the better conservation of peace, the said Viceroy did de¬
liver to this Deponent ten pledges (as he promised, gentle¬
men !) : and, in like manner, he did consent that there should
be ten pledges of Englishmen given to the said Viceroy, for
the same intent and purpose.

In consideration of the said Viceroy’s proclamation, he,
this Deponent, caused to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet,
that “ none of his company should break the peace, or give
occasion of quarrel to the Spaniards, upon pain of his dis¬
pleasure.” Whereupon, the Englishmen remained in quiet
manner till such time as they were assaulted by the said
Viceroy of his adherents ; who first began the fight, contrary
to their fidelity and Christian dealing.

Soon after that the said Viceroy was entered into the said
haven, he or his adherents the Spaniards gathered from the
mainland a great number of men, in most secret manner, as
well into his said fleet of thirteen ships as into other Spanish
ships which were in the same haven before, to the number of
eight or nine ships. And amongst others had manned one
great Hulk of the burden of 800 tons, and placed and put into
her, to this Deponent’s judgement, about 300 men more than
she had before. And besides this, the said Spaniards had
fastened a hawser from the said Hulk to the head cable of the
Jesus in the night time ; which Hulk did ride within twenty
yards or thereabouts from the same Jesus. And having
brought their business thus to pass, they planted their
ordnance from their ships towards the Englishmen which
were upon the little island which maketh the haven.

Upon the intelligence of these things, he, this Deponent,
sent one of his company, Robert Barret, to understand
what these innovations did mean ; and to request him that
he would see the peace to be preserved according to his
promise.

And the said Viceroy perceiving, as it seemed, that his in¬
tended enterprise was discovered ; and to the intent this De¬
ponent should have no time to provide for his defence, stayed

1 12 Sworn Depositions as to the Fight.

the said Barret, presently blew the defiance, shot off the
Spanish ordnance at the Englishmen which were in the said
island, and upon the same there suddenly landed on the island
about 800 Spaniards and other inhabitants of that country,
who slew almost all the Englishmen which were there a
land.

Moreover, at the same instant, the said great Hulk by haul¬
ing the hawser which was fastened to the Jesus , as is afore¬
said, boarded first the Minion , and then the Jesus (wherein
this Deponent then was), riding hard aboard one another.

And this Deponent saith the Spaniards began the fight un¬
locked for on the English side. And so the Spaniards
continued shooting off their artillery, both from the Platform
[battery] which was upon the said island and hard upon [ close
to] the English ships, and also from their ships, in most cruel
manner, by the space of about eight or nine hours, from
about eight o’clock in the morning till the evening following
the same day ; which cruel fight was done on the twenty-
third day of the said month of September.

In the afternoon of the same day that the said fight was
thus begun, and during the same, the Spaniards did set a
fire two of their ships ; and afterwards drived them towards
the Jesus and the Minion : to the intent and purpose, as he
thinketh, to destroy the English ships there, or else to cause
them to yield unto them.

And whereas, this Deponent had, all that day, attended to
the defence of the Jesus, and his company by their good
travail and manliness had stoutly stood unto the same
defence ; the sudden approaching of the fired ships made a
great alteration of things.

For the Minion did, without this Deponent’s command¬
ment or the Captain’s (as he saith), set sail, for fear of the
fire ; to withdraw herself out of the way of those fired ships :
which caused the men of the Jesus to be much more troubled,
for that she could not be removed out of that place with any
sail, and was the hardlier [with more difficulty] to be kept,
upon the departure of the Minion.

So that this Deponent perceiving the sudden fear of his
men, and the imminent danger that they stood in for the
safeguard of themselves, leaped into the Minion , out of the
said Jesus ; whereunto he was very hardly [with great dif-

^Ma^r^:] SW0RN Depositions as to the Fight. 113

ficulty ] received : for, in that instant, was she under sail, and
departing from off board the Jesus. Whereas this Deponent
had determined otherwise to have kept the Jesus till night ;
and then to have saved and brought such things [i.e., the
great treasure] out of her into the Minion as he conveniently
might : and by this occasion, he left behind him in the Jesus
such things as he hereafter expressed in his Deposition to the
Schedule.

If he had tarried ever so little longer upon board the said
Jesus, he could not, by any means, have gotten therehence ;
neither escaped the hands of the Spaniards, which would
have been to his utter confusion.

And this Deponent did see the Swallow and the Grace of
God taken by force of the Spaniards, in the aforesaid fight ;
and by them possessed : and the Angel was sunk by the
ordnance which the Spaniards shot off from the Platform
[on the island].

And shortly after that this Deponent was departed forth
of the Jesus, the Spaniards entered into her also ; and
possessed her in his sight : whereby he was not only spoiled
by the said Spaniards of the said four ships, with their
ordnance, apparel, furniture, and victuals ; but also of the
wares and goods [i.e., the treasure] particularly valued in his
Depositions to the Schedule.

The Deposition of Humphrey Fones,
Steward of the Angel.

E at the beginning of the fight, was in the Angel ,
and there remained till she was like[ly] to sink by
the great shot from off the Platform on the shore
which the Spaniards kept : and, for saving of himself
came aboard the Minion.

Upon the approaching of the fired ships, the men that
were in the Minion then riding hard aboard the Jesus, were in
great fear and perplexity to be fired. Insomuch that, upon
the sudden, the men cut her foresail : whereupon divers of
the said Jesus men did leap into the Minion to save them-
i- H 4

1 14 Sworn Depositions as to the Fight. [|r

selves ; amongst whom, the above named Hawkins was one,
And certain leapt short of the Minion and were drowned.

At which time, the said Hawkins could not save the
things that were in the Jesus : which was so beaten with the
Spanish ordnance that she could not be removed from the
place where she lay at anchor ; her foreyard being broken
and the masts perished with the shot.

If the said Hawkins had but the space of one minute
deferred his coming off from the said Jesus , either he had in
her, by reason of the continual shooting at her, been slain,
or else taken by the Spaniards : for the said Jesus lay as a
bulwark and succoured the Minion , so as all the shot and
battery of the Spanish ordnance rested upon the Jesus .

He himself lost the worth of 20 marks [ = £13 6s. 8^.] which
he left in the Angel ; and could not carry the same away,
being narrowly driven that he could scarcely save himself ;
for he escaped out of the Angel in his doublet and hose.

The Deposition of Jean Turren,
Trumpeter in the Jesus.

E was Trumpeter unto the said Hawkins, in the
Jesus , and then blew the trumpet himself [on the
occasion of Sir J. Hawkins's proclaiming the Truce
to the English fleet].

The Jesus was not prepared for the fight, but altogether
unready, by reason the Englishmen (not mistrusting the
breach of friendship, and falsehood of the Spaniards) had
minded to set carpenters a work, the next day, to mend her.

The English ships could not without present [instant]
danger of shipwreck avoid the fight, nor escape the Spanish
shot ; for that the haven was very little, and the wind did not
serve to get out.

About three o’clock in the afternoon, the Spaniards set a fire
two of their own ships.

The Spaniards took the Grace of God and the Swallow ,
whose anchors lay fastened upon the shore, and thereby
were the easier to be gotten ; for the one ship lay fast aboard
the other.

1 T5

Depositions to the twenty-seven

ft R T I C jL E £ OF THE SCHEDULE.

S c he d ule i . — - The ship J esus of Lubeck, with her
tackle and furniture . 5 ; 0 0 0 .

[v This is the amount that was claimed by Sir William Garrard
and his Company for the ship in its perfect order as it was sent forth from
England.]

John Hawkins, Esq.

1 did carry with him out of England, the
said ship call the Jesus of Lubeck, in the
which he sailed all the last Voyage from
England to the West Indias ; and the same
was appointed one of his fleet by Sir
William Garrard and his Company :
which was of the burthen of 700 tons and
upwards, well furnished in all respects and
points for such a long voyage.

At such time as the Spaniards began the fight, as it is before
by him deposed, she was worth, in his judgement, the sum of
£4,000 sterling, besides her ordnance : especially in the
haven of Vera Cruz and other places in the West Indias.
For this Deponent, having used the trade of merchandize,
built, bought, and sold ships, do know very well, what doth
belong unto shipping : and thereby judgeth the said Jesus to
be worth, at the time aforesaid, the said sum of £4,000, as
ships be commonly bought and sold, both in England and
Spain ; especially at Seville, ^where, to this Deponent’s know¬
ledge, ships be sold much dearer than in England for the
occupying of merchandize.

And trading with the Merchants of Spain, he knoweth a
ton freight from Seville to the West Indias, to be commonly
in price and rate, 30 ducats [=£8 $s.= about £66 now] and
between 30, and 36 ducats [=£9 1 8s. — about £80 now].

1 1 6 Depositions to the Schedule. [^^'^§9.'

5 c hed ule 2.— The ordnance of the Jesus, as sent
out of England . £ 2 3 0 0 0 .

John Hawkins, Esq.

He ordinary ordnance of the Jesus in her, at £
the time of the fight aforesaid, was worth ... 1,800
There were two whole-culverins, two
cannons, five demi-culverins, three sacres,
and two falcons. All which pieces were of brass,
and worth . 1,200

And besides, there were in her, at that time, these
pieces of iron ordnance ; first, three demi-culverins ;
item , five sacres ; item, two whole slings ; item , ten
fowlers ; item, thirty bases. And the same iron ord¬
nance he esteemeth worth . 350

And more, he doth judge the value of the shot,
carriages, and the other furniture which belonged to
the said ordnance, to be, then, well worth . 250

£1,800

This Deponent, as he saith, hath good experience what
ordnance is worth, by reason he had made, divers times,
provision of ordnance for his shipping : and that such
ordnance as this was, with their carriages and furniture, is
and would be commonly sold for the said sum of £1,800
sterling.

Schedule 3. — Ammunition . £1,000.

[v It should be remembered that this ammunition was actually ex¬
pended in fighting the Spaniards.]

T the time of the fight aforesaid, there were these
parcels of munition [ammunition] ensuing, provided
at the charges and expenses of the said Sir William
Garrard and Company.

First, 4 barrels of Serpentine [gun]powder, at
£5 sterling the barrel, and every barrel contained £ s. d.
1 cwt . 20 o o

Item , 50 barrels of Corn [gun]powder, at £6

Sir J. Hawkins.-]
23 March 1569J

Depositions to the Schedule

11 7

13s. 4d. the barrel ; and every barrel contained i £

cwt . . . . ... 333

And there were, in addition, at the same time
of the fight, in the three ships, the Swallow , the
Grace of God, and the Angel, 10 barrels of [corn]
gunpowder, worth [at £6 13s. 4 d.] . 66 13 4

£420 0 0

Moreover there were, then, in all the same four ships, these
parcels of armour; which were also provided upon the charge
of Sir William Garrard and Company.

First, 70 Corslets
Item, 250 Jacks
Item, 250 Pikes
Item, 250 Calivers
Item, 40 Partizans
Item, 200 Brown Bills

[at about 24 s. each ] worth
[at 105. each ] worth
[at 3 s. each] worth
[at 20 s. each] worth ..
[at 135. 4 d. each] worth
[at 15. 6d. each] worth..

Item, 100 Bows and 100 Sheafs of Arrows [at 55
the Bow and Sheaf of Arrows] worth .

All which sums do amount to .

125

250

£984

Which this Deponent knoweth the better, for that he hath
good experience in armour and munition, and by that occa¬
sion, knoweth, that the like of such parcels afore declared,
be commonly bought and sold for the several prices above
declared.

Of all which parcels, this Deponent was spoiled by the
Spaniards, in the fight before by him declared.

Schedule 4. — Two anchors and three cables,
belonging to the Minion . ^8200.

John Hawkins, Esq.

N the fight before mentioned, the Minion (which
was set forth, this last voyage, by the appointment
of the said Sir William Garrard and Company) ;
the better to shift for herself from the fired ships
(being, in a manner, come upon her), did lose in the said

1 1 8 Depositions to the Schedule.

haven, two anchors and three cables of her tackle and furni¬
ture ; for the want of which, this Deponent and his company,
in their return to England in the said ship, were in great
danger of their lives, and put to great extremities.

That (by reason he hath been traded in navigations and
voyages ; and hath used the seas) he hath good experience in
cordage and anchors ; and thereby knoweth the same to be
worth £130 sterling, and that such cables and anchors be
commonly bought and sold in England, for the same sum.

61 c he d ule 5. — The ship Swallow, with her tackle ,
furniture , and ordnance ; and the provisions and sailors
effects on aboard ' as sent out of England .... £850.

John Hawkins, Esq.

He ship articulate, called
Adventure of the said Sir
Company, and one of the
which was a new ship of

the Swallow , was of the
William Garrard and
said fleet of six ships ;
about 100 tons portage,
very well conditioned, good of sail, and well furnished with
ordnance. And therefore, this Deponent saith, that she was
worth, at the beginning of the said fight, with her victuals
and other necessaries and preparation lost in her, the said

sum of £850 sterling ; according as the like ships, ordnance,
and furniture be commonly sold in England : and for that
money, might have been commonly sold in this realm ; and
especially at Seville in Spain aforesaid, agreeing to his
experience and knowledge above remembered.

Schedule £>.—The ship Angel with her tackle ,
furniture , and ordnance ; and the provisions and sailors
effects on board, as sent out of England .... £180.

John Hawkins, Esq.

He Angel articulate was of the said Company’s Ad¬
venture, which was of about 32 tons burthen. And
she was worth at the beginning of the said fight, the
sum of £180.

Depositions to the Schedule, i i 9

S che d ule 7. — The ship The Grace of God, with
her tackle , furniture , and ordnance ; and the p7rovisions
and sailors effects on board . £4:00.

John Hawkins, Esq.

He said ship, called The Grace of God was of the
said Company’s Adventure, and of this Deponent’s
fleet likewise ; being but a new ship, and of the
burthen of about 150 tons. And thereby, this De¬
ponent judgeth that she was worth, at the beginning of the
said fight, in her hull, apparel, ordnance, victuals and other
necessaries, the sum of £350 sterling ; as shipping is com¬
monly bought and sold in England, and especially at Seville
in Spain.

John Tommes, Hawkins's servant .

The Grace of God was about 150 tons burthen.

Schedule 8. — 'Fifty-seven Negroes in the Jesus
and the other three ships aforesaid , each worth in the
West Indies 400 Pesos of Gold at [8j. the Peso =]
,£160 the slave \_~now about ,£1,250] .... £9,120.

John Hawkins, Esq.

Fter the traffic (by him deposed to before) ; the
Jesus , the Swallow , the Grace of God, and the Angel
departing from Cartagena, brought in them, from
thence unto the Port of Vera Cruz, forty-five
Negroes, of goodly stature, shape, and personage ; and young
of years, being the choice and principal of all the Negroes
which were gotten and purchased in the last voyage at
Guinea. And moreover, there were twelve other Negroes
carried then in the Minion to Vera Cruz.

All which forty-five Negroes were of the said Company’s
goods and adventure ; and were either slain in the fight at
Vera Cruz, or then taken by the Spaniards, from the posses¬
sion of this said Deponent. And the other twelve Negroes,
which were in the Minion , might have been sold [!] at the
said Port of Vera Cruz greatly to the profit of the said Sir

120 Depositions to the Schedule. [gr^a^w^;

William Garrard and Company, if the said Spaniards had
not used such violence ; by reason whereof, this Deponent
was enforced to depart from the said Port of Vera Cruz
sooner than he thought to do.

At such time, as he was at Vera Cruz, being in Septem¬
ber last as before, the said 57 Negroes, one with another,
might have been sold at Vera Cruz for 400 Pesos of Gold
every Negro. And for reason of his better knowledge, he
saith that he hath sold, and seen others buy and sell Negroes
at Rio de la Hacha and other hither* places of the West
Indias, both this last summer, and in two other voyages
before ; and, by that experience, knoweth that such choice
Negroes be commonly sold there for 150 Pesos of Gold [=£60
—about £500 now].

And saith, that, this last year, there was one choice Negro
sold Rio de la Hacha for 150 Pesos of Gold ; and yet (in this
Deponent’s judgement) that Negro was not worth so much
money as many of the said 45 Negroes were. For the Eng¬
lishmen, Frenchmen, and Portuguese do bring many Negroes
to the said hither places of the West Indias; but none that
ever this Deponent could hear of, to the haven of Vera Cruz ;
being about 600 leagues sailing beyond these hither places.
By reason whereof, the Negroes and all other wares [!] must
be dearer bought and sold there, than in the other said hither
and near places. t

John Tommes.

There were ten or twelve Negroes or thereabouts in the
Minion ; whereof she brought seven into England [seep, ],
and the rest died by the way homewards.

5 c he d ule 9. — 30 Bales of Linen Cloth at [3,000

Rials of Silver =] ^75 [= about ^600 now the

Bale] . £2,250.

* Hither places, i.e., nearer to England, by the ordinary course of Eng¬
lish navigation in the West Indies. What is meant are the ports in the
Carribean Sea ; which were frequented by English ships before the Bay of
Mexico was known to them.

f Of course this is merely an argument here for a fictitious price : but
unless William Fowler perjured himself (see p. 106-8) 400 Pesos of
Gold for a Negro was under rather than over the mark.

I 2 I

Depositions to tpie Schedule.

John Hawkins, Esq.

Hen the Jesus departed last from Cartagena, as
aforesaid, she had left in her, 30 Fardels of Linen
Cloth, belonging to the said Sir William Garrard
and Company: whereof 25 Fardels were good
Ordmardas , called in the West Indias, Preselias; and 5 Fardels
were Roanes.

At the said Rio de la Hacha and the coast thereabouts,
divers Fardels of like Ordmardas were commonly sold by this
Deponent and others, this last year, for the value of 2,290
Rials of Plate of Spanish coin, every Fardel : and divers Far¬
dels of like Roanes were commonly sold by this Deponent
and others for 2,100 Rials of Plate, every Fardel. And, there¬
fore, this Deponent vainly believeth that the said 30 Fardels
of Linen Cloth would have been sold at Vera Cruz for 3,000
Rials of Plate, every Fardel.

Which said 30 Fardels were, in the said Jesus , brought to
the said Port of Vera Cruz; and there, in her remaining, at
such time as this Deponent did there forsake the Jesus by the
sudden invasion and violence of said Spaniards done unto
him and his company as before specified.

fat 1 ss.

£750.

Schedule 10. — 1,000 Pintados

each] .

John Hawkins, Esq.

He Jesus brought in her, from Cartagena, 900
Pintados , which were left of the whole number
brought out of England, at the said Company’s
Adventure, to the said haven of Vera Cruz. And
in this last voyage, he and others sold at Barboroatta and
Santa Marta, the like Pintados for a Peso and a half of Gold
[ = 125.] apiece ; and so were they commonly sold there.

And of those Pintados, was this Deponent likewise spoiled
by the Spaniards, at the port of Vera Cruz, as above men¬
tioned.

Sc he d ule 11. — 400 lbs. ejus generis quae vulgo
dicunter Margaritas, at $s . £100,

i22 Depositions to the Schedule.

Schedule 12. — 300 lbs. of Pewter [at 2s. a lb.]
[worth] . £30.

5 c he d ule 13. — A Bale of Broad Taffetas , con¬
taining 40 Spanish Vares . £-40.

Schedule 14. — 4 Bales [of 11 pieces each] of
woollen cloths called Hampshires [i.e., Kersies] and
Northerns . £340.

Schedule 15. — 6 Bales of Cottons at £\$ each
[worth"] . £90.

John Hawkins, Esq.

Pon the foresaid traffic made by this Deponent, in
that last voyage, there was left of the said Company’s
goods, these parcels of wares following ; which this
Deponent brought in the Jesus from the port of
Cartagena to Vera Cruz. 400 lbs. of Margaritas ; 300 lbs.
of Pewter; A case of Broad Taffetas, containing 40 Spanish
Vares; 4 Packs of “ Hampshires ” and “Northerns;” 6
Packs of Cottons. Whereof, this Deponent was spoiled by
the Spaniards in the said haven of Vera Cruz, as above
declared.

And as touching the value of these wares, this Deponent
saith that the like wares unto those, were sold at Barboroatta,
Rio de la Hacha, and other places in the West Indies, by this
Deponent and others, for the several prices underwritten.

The lb. of Pewter, for 4^ Rials of Silver [2s. 3 d.].

The lb. of Margaritas, for a Peso of Gold [=8s.].

The Vare of Taffeta, for 3 Pesos of Gold [=245.].

A [i.e., a piece of Hampshires] Kersey at 18 Pesos of Gold
[■=£7 45.] the piece [of 17 English yards]) of which 11 be
contained in every pack [i.e., 198 Pesos of Gold, the pack].

The piece of “ Northerns ” at 14 Pesos of Gold [=£5 175.],
whereof 11 be contained in every pack [i.e., 154 Pesos of
Gold, the pack].

And the Piece of Cottons, at 15 Pesos of Gold [=£6],
whereof 5 make the pack [i.e., 90 Pesos of Gold, the pack] ;
and every piece of Cottons containeth 61 Vares.

Depositions to the Schedule. 123

Schedule 16. — A chest of 30 gilt rapiers , with

their daggers and girdles . £120.

Schedule 17. — 12 Quintals (100 /As*.) of Wax [at
^10 each] . £120.

John Hawkins, Esq.

He said Sir William Garrard and Company had
in the Jesus , after the traffic aforesaid, these parcels
also ; which this Deponent brought from Cartagena.
A chest of gilt rapiers, with their daggers and
girdles, and 12 Quintals of Wax.

Whereof the Spaniards spoiled this Deponent in the fight
aforesaid.

Like rapiers unto these were worth, and commonly sold in
that voyage in the West Indies, for 10 and 12 Pesos of
Gold [—£4 and £4 165.] the piece.

And judgeth the common price of wax in the West Indias
to be £10 sterling the hundred [lbs. or Quintal].

Schedule 18. — Seven tons of Manilios, at

. £350.

John Hawkins, Esq.

His Deponent knoweth well that the Company afore¬
said, had remaining in the Jesus , the Swallow , the
Grace of God, and the Angel , 6 tons of Manilios, at
the least, sent by them out of England ; which cost,
the first penny, one ton with another, £46 13s. qd. sterling.

And of those wares also was this Deponent dispossessed,
and spoiled by the Spaniards, in the fight aforesaid.

Schedule 19. — A bag of gold and silver in the
J esus, containing 600 Pesos of Gold and Silver £2,000.

Schedule 20.— A chest of Silver Plate , in the
Jesus, worth . £200.

Schedule 21.— Coriente silver , in the Jesus
\wortlt\ . £500.

124 Depositions to the Schedule, [ff LSTiseJ.

John Hawkins, Esq.

E left such quantity of treasure and plate in the
Jesus. Of which treasure he was spoiled by the
violence of the Spaniards.

John Tommes (Hawkins’s servant ).

Hath helped to lay up the Silver Plate, when it was used
aboard at the receiving of any Spaniards, and it was as much
as he could conveniently carry.

S c he d u l e 22. — -In the four ships , 20 butts vini
Cretici et Hispanic! vulgo, Malmeseys , and Seeks [Sack,
the modern Sherry], [at the butt] .... £300.
Schedule 23. — In the same, 36 barrels of meal ,

at £4 . . . . . . . .... £144.

Schedule 24. — In the same, other victuals and
necessaries, to the value of . . £150.

John Hawkins, Esq.

Here were, in the said four ships which were lost at
the time of the said fight, so much victuals as is
here specified ; which he esteemeth to be no less
worth than is particularly specified in these articles ;
for this Deponent being well experienced in victualling of
ships, knoweth that the same can be worth no less.

William Clarke, Merchant in the Fleet.

There could be no less quantity of wines, meat, and other
victuals in the Jesus (where the said Hawkins sailed himself)
and the other three ships : because the ship called the William
and John [wherein Clarke was], at her departure from Carta¬
gena, had in her dry muttons [sheep], peas, bacon, rice, maize,
beef, stock fish, and biscuit ; worth £60 sterling. And be¬
sides, she had then 3 butts of Canary wine, and 13 barrels of
meal. And therefore he judgeth that the other four ships
above mentioned, had their share and store of wine and

March^S.'] Depositions to the Schedule. 125

victuals proportionably ; and believeth that the Jesus had
most of all ; for that she had in her, much provision for the
relief of all the fleet in time of need.

And the company in the William and Mary, being [evidently
after their separation from Hawkins ] in necessity of meal ; he
did buy meal about 140 leagues on this side of the haven of
Vera Cruz, after the rate of 40 Rials of Plate [=£1] the
English bushel; which is at the rate of £y sterling for every
barrel of meal.

Humphrey Fones, Steward of the Angel.

There was in the Angel at the time she was sunk, ij butts
of Canary wine, 2 barrels and more of meal, 1 hogshead of
pickled pork, 1 hogshead of rice, 3 hogsheads of pease, 250
stock fish, 1 butt of maize, 1 butt of biscuit, 24 dried sheep,
and 1 hogshead of beer : for this Deponent, being the Steward,
of the Angel, did make these sorts and quantities of victuals the
better ; and knoweth that the other ships were provided of the
same kind of victuals, every one agreeing to their burden and
bigness.

Schedule 25. — In the Jesus, the apparel and
furniture of J ohn Ha whins, Esquire .... £300.

John Hawkins, Esq.

s apparel and furniture was worth much more.

For he left in the Jesus, through the said violence
of the Spaniards, these parcels of apparel and furni¬
ture ensuing.

First, 300 lbs. weight of pewter ... worth £ 30

Item, Twelve pieces of Tapestry ... worth 100

Item, His bedding and other things belonging

unto the same . worth 40

Item, Apparel and linen . worth 140

Item, Three corslets of proof . worth 30

Item, His provision of spice, sugar, marma¬
lade, and conserves . worth 40

Item, Instruments of the sea, books and

other things . worth 60

£440

126 Depositions to tpie Schedule.

William Clarke, Merchant in the Fleet .

He saw Master Hawkins wear, in this Voyage, divers suits
of apparel of velvets and silks, with buttons of gold, and
pearl; with other apparel and furniture: which in his judge¬
ment, might well be worth £250.

Schedule 26. — In the Jesus, chests and bundles
of the sailors . . £900.

John Hawkins, Esq.

E believeth in his conscience, that the same is
true. For he had in the Jesus 180 men ; whereof
part were Officers in the ships, part gentlemen of
good houses ; and some Surgeons, and some Mer¬
chants ; whereof divers had their provision worth fosterling,
and many lost £20. So that he believeth that the men’s
losses in the Jesus could be no less worth than is articulated.

Schedule 2 7. — In the Jesus, a bale 20 mantel-
lorum vulgo dicitur, a Pack of Twenty Cloaks , each
worth . £80.

John Hawkins, Esq.

He Company had in the Jesus, 20 cloaks; whereof
this Deponent was spoiled by the Spaniards in the
fight aforesaid.

Those cloaks were worth £3 sterling apiece ; for
the like were commonly sold in the West Indies by this
Deponent and others for 8 Pesos of God [ = f 12s.].

Jean Turren, Trumpeter.

There was in the Jesus , a Pack of 20 Cloaks of sundry
colours; which he did brush and make clean sometimes
during that Voyage.

127

Sir John ffAWKiNg’g pretended treach¬
ery, in the Summer of 1571; carried on with

THE KNOWEEDQE AND UNDER THE gANCTIOJM OF

Queen Bl^Abeth a^id JL,ord Bureeiqh.

Sir John Hawkins.

Letter of x^th May , 1571, to Lord
B u r g h le y , to arrange for F 1 tz-
williams to have access to
the ueen of Scots.

IS fate Papers. Scotland. MARY, Queen of Scots. Vol. 6. Mo. 6 xj

Our good Lordship may be advertised, that
Fitzwilliams hath been in the country to
deliver his tokens, and to have had some
speech with the Queen of Scots; which,
by no means, he could obtain. Whereupon,
he hath devised with me, that I should
make some means to obtain him license to
have access unto her, for her letter to the
King of Spain, for the better obtaining of our men’s liberty :
which, otherwise, are not to be released; which device I
promised him I would follow.

And if it shall seem good unto your Lordship, he may be
recommended by such credit as to your Lordship shall seem
best : for, unless she be first spoken with, and answer from
her sent into Spain, the credit for the treasure cannot be
obtained.

If your Lordship think meet that Fitzwilliams shall be
recommended to speak with her ; if I may know by what
sort your Lordship will appoint, there shall [be] all diligence

128 Text by Queen of Scots in a breviary. [Sir

for his despatch used. And hereof I most humbly pray your
good Lordship’s speedy resolution.

And thus I rest (13th of May, 1571).

Your Good Lordship’s most humbly to command,

John Hawkins

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable Lord Burghley ; give these l

John Hawkins.

Letter of the 7th "June , 1571, to Lord
Burghley , desiring that Fitz-
williams may have license
to go to Spain .

[State Papers. Scotland. MARY, Queen of Scots. Vol. 6. No. 73.]

]Our good Lordship may be advertised that Fitz-
williams is returned, and hath letters from
the Queen of Scots to the King of Spain ;
which are enclosed with others in a packet directed
unto your Lordship.

He hath also a book of gold (sent from her, to the Duchess
of Feria) with the Old Service in Latin ; and in the end hath
written this word, with her own hand, Absit nobis gloriari, nisi
in cruce Domini nostri , Jesu Christi. Marie R.

I would have brought your Lordship the packet myself ;
but he would deliver it himself ; and requireth to have from
me a speedy despatch for his departure into Spain : the
which I would gladly your Lordship would determine.

And if the course which I have begun shall be thought
good by Her Majesty, that I shall proceed [in] ; there is no
doubt but three commodities will follow, that is:

1. First, the practices of the enemies will be daily more
and more discovered.

2. There will be credit gotten hither for a good sum of
money.

3. Thirdly, the same money, as the time shall bring
forth cause, shall be employed to their own detriment :

Sirls?pa«:^:]ANTICIPATIONS OF THE SPANISH ArMADA. 1 29

and what ships there shall be appointed (as they shall
suppose to serve their turn), may do some notable ex¬
ploit, to their great damage.

I most humbly pray your Lordship to carry this matter, so
as Fitzwilliams may not have me in suspicion; and as
speedy a determination for his despatch as conveniently may be.
And so [I] leave to trouble your good lordship any further.
The 7th of June, 1571.

Your good Lordship’s most humbly to command,

John Hawkins.

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable Lord Burgh ley, give this 1

John Hawkins.

Letter of the ^.th September , 1571,
announcing the success of the
intrigue .

[State Papers. Domestic Series. ELIZABETH. Vol. 81. No. 7.

My very good Lord.

T may please your Honour to be advertised, that
Fitzwilliams is returned from the Court of
Spain ; where his message was acceptably re¬
ceived, both by the King himself, the Duke of
Feria, and others of his Privy Council.

His despatch and answer were with great expedition ; and
with great countenance and favour of the King [i.e. , Phillip
II. jumped at the idea of Hawkins's treachery ].

The Articles are sent to the Ambassador [i.e ., of Spain in
England^ Don G uera u D'Espes\ with order also for money
to be paid me by him, for the enterprise to proceed with all
diligence.

Their pretence [design] is, that my power should join with
the Duke of Alva’s power, which he doth secretly provide in
Flanders, as well as with the power which cometh with the
Duke of Medina out of Spain : and so, all together to invade
this realm, and set up the Queen of Scots.

1. I

130 GOD DELIVER ME FROM THE TITLES ! &C. [Sir J’s^pat7^;

They have practised with us for the burning of Her
Majesty’s ships ; therefore there would be some good care
had of them : but not as it may appear that anything is
discovered, as your Lordship’s consideration can well provide.

The King hath sent a ruby of good price to the Queen
of Scots, with letters also ; which, in my judgement, were
good to be delivered. The letters be of no importance : but
his message by word is to comfort her, and say that “ He
hath now none other care, than to place her in her own.”

It were good also that the Ambassador did make request
unto your Lordship that Fitzwilliams may have access to
the Queen of Scots, to render thanks for the delivery of our
prisoners [i.e., of such of Hawkins's Third Voyage men , as had
been sent to Spain by this time , July, 1571, and were not in the
Inquisition , see pp. 161-242, and esp. 205], which are now at
liberty. It will be a very good colour [ pretence ] for your Lord-
ship to confer with him [i.e., Fitz william] more largely.

I have sent your Lordship the [or rather a] copy of my
Pardon from the King of Spain, in the very order and manner
I have it. The Duke of Medina, and the Duke of Alva hath,
every of them, one of the same Pardons more amplified, to
present to me ; although this be large enough ! with very
great titles and honours from the King : from which, may
GOD deliver me !

I send your Lordship also the copy of my letter from the
Duke of Feria, in the very manner as it was written ; with
his wife’s and son’s hands in the end.

Their practices be very mischievous; and they be never
idle ; but GOD, I hope, will confound them ! and turn their
devices upon their own necks !

I will put my business in some order, and give mine at¬
tendance upon Her Majesty, to do her that service that, by
your Lordship, shall bethought most convenient in this case.

I am not tedious with your Lordship, because Fitz¬
williams cometh himself ; and I mind not to be long after
him ! and thus I trouble your good Lordship no further.

From Plymouth, the 4th day of September, 1571.

Your good Lordship’s most faithfully to my power,

John Hawkins.

Addressed —

To the Right Honourable the Lord Burghley, give this !

Jasper Campion.

The English trade to Scio.

I539-IS7° A-D-

1 32

Jasper Campion.

The English trade to Scio. 1539-1570 a.d.

[Hakluyt’s Voyages. 1599.]

A discourse of the trade to Scio, made in the year 1569,
[i.e. 1570] by Jasper Campion unto Master Michael
Lock and unto Master William Winter : as by his
letters unto them both, shall appear. Written the 14th
of February 1569 [i.e. 1570].

Worshipful Sir, etc.

S these days past, I spake unto you about the
procurement of a safe - conduct from the great
Turk for a trade to Scio: the way and manner
how it may be obtained with great ease, shall
plainly appear unto you in the lines following.

Sir, you shall understand that the island of Scio in time
past hath been a Signiory or lordship of itself; and did
belong to the Genoese. There were twenty-four of them
that governed the island, who were called Mauneses. But in
continuance of time the Turk waxed so strong and mighty :
that they — considering they were not able to keep it, unless
they should become his tributaries : because the island had
no corn nor any kind of victuals to sustain them, but only that
which must of necessity come out of the Turk’s dominions ;
and the said island being enclosed with the Turks round
about, and but twelve miles from the Turk’s continent —
therefore the said Genoese did compound and agree to be
the Turk’s tributaries, and to pay him 14,000,000 ducats
yearly : always provided that they should keep their laws both
spiritual and temporal, as they did when the island was in
their own hands. Thus he granted them their privilege,

H'F^rSo.’] English trade to Scio. 1539-1570 a.d. 133

which they enjoyed for many years : so that all strangers,
and also many Englishmen, did trade thither of long
continuance, and went and came in safety.

In this meantime, the Prince Pedro Doria, being a
Genoese, became a captain to serve the Emperor with thirty
or forty galleys against the Turk. And since that time,
divers other captains belonging to Genoa, have been in the
service of King Philip against the Turk. Moreover,
whensoever the Turk made out an army, he perceived that
no nation did him more hurt than those Genoese who were
his tributaries. Likewise at the Turk’s siege of Malta [in
I55I“53 a.d.] — before which place he lay a great while ; with
loss of his men, and also of his galleys — he found none so
troublesome unto his force as one Juanette Doria a Genoese,
and divers others of the island of Scio, who were his tributaries.
At which sight, he took such displeasure against them of
Scio, that he sent certain of his galleys to the island, to seize
upon all the goods of the twenty-four Mauneses ; and to turn
them, with their wives and children, out of the island : but
they would let none other depart, in order that the island should
not be unpeopled. So that now the Turk hath sent one of his
chief men to rule there : whereby now it will be more easy
for us to obtain our safe-conduct than ever it was before.

For if the townsmen of Scio did know that we would trade
thither, as we did in times past ; they themselves, and also
the Customer — for the Turk in all his dominions doth rent
his customs— would be the chiefest procurer of this our safe-
conduct for his own gain. Which is no small matter, for we
must pay no less than ten in the hundred throughout the
Turk’s whole dominion : insomuch that if one of our ships
should go thither, it would be for the Customer’s profit 4,000
ducats at least ; whereas if we should not trade thither, he
would lose so much.

Also the burgesses and the common people would be very
glad of our trade there, for the commonalty do get more by
our countrymen than they do by any other nation whatsoever:
for we do use to buy many of their silk quilts and of their
scamato and dimity, that the poor people make in that town,
more than any other nation ; so that we would not so gladly
trade, but the people of the country would be twice as
willing. Wherefore they themselves would be a means unto

134ENGLISH trade TO Scio. 1 539~i 5 7° A.D.

their governor by their petition, to bring this trade to pass :
giving him to understand that of all nations in the world we
do him least hurt, and that we may do his country great
good in consuming those commodities which his country
people make.

Furthermore, it were far more requisite that we should
carry our own commodities, than to suffer a stranger to carry
them thither : for that we can afford them better cheap than
a stranger can.

I write not this by hearsay of other men, but of mine
own experience : for I have traded in the country above this
thirty years ; and have been married in the town of Scio full
twenty-four years : so you may assure yourself that I will
write nothing but truth.

Now I will declare unto you the wares and commodities
that are in the countries near about Scio. There are very
good galls, the best sort whereof are sold in England, five
shillings [the hundredweight] dearer than any other country’s
galls. There are also cotton wool ; tanned hides ; hides in
the hair ; wax ; camlets ; mocayares ; grogerams ; silk of
divers countries ; Cordovan skins tanned white to be made
black, of them in great quantity; and also coarse wool to
make beds. The natural commodities growing in the island
itself are raw silk and mastic.

Of these commodities there are laden yearly ten or twelve
great ships of Genoa ; besides five or six which belong to the
town of Scio : which ships are freighted for Genoa, Messina
and Ancona. And now that the Mauneses and the chief
merchants of Genoa are banished, the trade is clean lost : by
reason whereof our merchandise must now of necessity be
better cheap than it has been in times past.

But yet when all those ships did trade to the country, and
also our ships ; we never had less than three quintals of
galls for a kersey ; and in England we sold them for 35s.
and 36s. the hundred : whereas now they are brought by the
Venetians; they sell them unto us for £3 10s. and £4 the
h undred weight .

Also we had three quintals of cotton wool for a kersey, and
sold the wool for £2 10s. or £3 at the most : whereas now
the Italians sell the same to us for £4 10s. and £5 the
hundredweight.

English trade to Scio. 1539-1570 a.d. 135

In like manner, camlets : whereas we had three pieces,
and of the best sort two pieces and a half, for a kersey ; and
could not sell them above 20s. and 22s. the piece, they sell
them for 30s. and 35s. the piece.

Also grogerams, where we had of the best, two pieces and
a half for a kersey : they sell them for 4s. and 4s. 6d. the
yard.

Carpets, the smaller sort which serve for cupboards, we
had three for a kersey. Whereas we, at the most, could not
sell them but for 20s. the piece, they sell them for 35s. the piece.

And so all other commodities that the Venetians do bring,
they sell them to us for the third part more gains than we
ourselves obtained in those days that we traded in those parts.

Likewise the barrels of oil that they bring from Candia,
we never could sell them above four nobles [£2 13s. 4d.] the
barrel: where they sell them always for 50s. and £3 the barrel.

What great pity it is, that we should lose so good a trade ;
and may have it in our own hands, and be better welcome to
that country than the Venetians. Moreover, the Venetians
come very little to Scio ; for most of their trade is to
Alexandria.

And for to assure you that we had these commodities in
barter for our kerseys; look into your father’s books, and the
books of Sir John Gresham and his brethren; and you shall
find what I have said to be true.

Also you know that we are forced to seek for oils out of
Spain, and that for these many years they have been sold
there for £23 and £30 the tun : whereas — if we can obtain
the foresaid safe-conduct from the Turk-— there are divers
places in his dominions, where we may lade 500 tuns at £3
sterling the tun. The places are Modon and Coron, which
are but twelve miles distant the one from the other ; and do
stand in our way to Scio, as you may plainly see by the card
[chart] . Also there are places where we may utter [dispose of]
our own commodities. And not only at these two places, but
at many others ; where we may have oils, and be better used
than we are in Spain : where we pay very dear, and also are
very evilly entreated many ways, as to you is not unknown.
So that by these means, if the merchants will, we may be
eased; and have such a trade as the like is not in Christendom.

Now as for getting the safe-conduct, if I were but able to

I36ENGLISH TRADE TO Scio. 1 539-1 5 7© A.D. [/4*

spend £100 by the year : I would be bound to lose it, if that
I did not obtain the foresaid safe-conduct. For I know that
if the inhabitants of Scio did but think that we would trade
thither again ; they would, at their own cost, procure to us
a safe-conduct without a penny of charges to the merchants.
So that if the merchants will but bear my charges to solicit
the cause, I will undertake it myself. Where I pray you
speak to Master Winter and the other merchants, that this
may take effect ; and let me have your answer herein as soon
as conveniently you may : for the time of the year draweth
nigh that this business must be done.

Thus I commit you to GOD ; and rest always yours to
command,

Yours as your servant,

Jasper Campion.

To the Worshipful Master William Winter.

T may please your worship to understand, that as
concerning the voyage to Scio, what great profit
would be got both for merchants, and also for
owners of ships— as it was well known in those
days when the Matthew Gonson , the Trinity Fitz Williams ,
and the Saviour of Bristol with divers other ships which
traded thither yearly; and made their voyage in ten or twelve
months, and the longest in a year — Master Francis Lambert,
Master John Brooke and Master D raver can truly inform
you hereof at large.

And by reason that we have not traded into those parts
these many years; and that the Turk is grown mighty,
whereby our ships do not trade as they were wont : I find
that the Venetians do bring those commodities hither; and
do sell them for double the value of that we ourselves were
accustomed to fetch them. Wherefore, as I am informed by
the abovenamed men, that there is none so fit to furnish
this voyage as yourself : my request is that there may be a
ship of convenient burthen prepared for this voyage ; and
then I will satisfy you at large what is to be done therein.

And because the Turk, as I said before, is waxen strong,

iJ4 Febra?s7o:3 English trade to Scio. 1539-1570 a.d. 137

and hath put out the Christian rulers and placed his own
subjects ; we may doubt whether we may so peaceably trade
thither as we were wont : therefore I dare undertake to
obtain a safe-conduct, if my charges may be borne to go and
come. Of the way how this may be done, Master Lock can
satisfy you at large.

Moreover, I can inform you more of the trade of that
country than any other ; for that I have been in those parts
these thirty years, and have been married in the very town
of Scio full four and twenty years. Furthermore, when one
of our ships cometh thither, they bring at the least 6,000 or
8,000 kerseys; so that the customs thereof are very profitable
for the prince, and the return of them is profitable to the
common people : for in barter of our wares, we took the
commodities which the poor of that town made in their
houses. So that one of our ships brought the prince and
country more gain than six ships of other nations. The
want of this our trade thither was the only cause why the
Christian rulers were displaced : for when they paid not their
yearly tribute, they were put out by force.

Touching the ship that must go, she must observe this
order. She must be a ship of countenance. She must not
touch in any part of Spain, for the times are dangerous, nor
take in any lading there : but she either lade in England,
either goods of our own or else of strangers, and go to Genoa
or Leghorn, where we may be well intreated. From thence
she must make her money to buy wines by exchange to
Candia, for there both customs and exchange are reasonable :
and not do as the Matthew Gonson and other ships did in
times past, who made sale of their wares at Messina for the
lading of their wines ; and paid for turning their white money
[silver] into gold after four or five in the hundred, and also
did hazard the loss of ship and goods by carrying away
their money. Thus by the aforesaid course we shall trade
quietly, and not be subject to these dangers.

Also [along the coast] from Leghorn to Castel del Mare
which is but sixteen miles from Naples, and the ready way to
Candia; you may lade hoops: which will cost 27J “ caro-
lins ” of Naples the thousand, which is z\ ducats of Spain.
And in Candia for every thousand of hoops you shall have a
butt of Malmsey clear of all charges. Insomuch that a ship of

1 33 English trade to Scio. 1539--1570 a.d.

the burden [300 tons] of the Matthew Gonson will carry 400,000
hoops, so that 1,000 ducats will lade her. And this is an
usual trade to Candia, as Master Michael Lock can testify.

Furthermore, it is not unknown to you, that the oils which
we do spend [consume] in England for our cloth, are brought
out of Spain ; and that they are very dear ; so that in Eng¬
land we cannot sell them under £28 and £30 the tun. I say
we may have good oil, and better cheap in divers places
within the Straits [of Gibraltar].

Therefore if you think good to take this voyage in hand; I
will inform you more particularly, when you please.

In the meantime, I rest

Your Worship’s to command.

Yours at your pleasure.

Jasper Campion.

i39

A[nthony] M[unday].

Captivity of John Fox of IV oodbridge.
Gunner of the Three Half Moons,
by the Turks ; and of his
wonderful escape from
Alexandria.

[Hakluyt, Voyages, 1589.]

The worthy enterprise of John Fox an Englishman, in
delivering 266 Christians out of the captivity of the
Turks at Alexandria, the 3rd of January, 1577.

Mong our merchants here in England, it is a
common voyage to traffic into Spain. Whereunto
a ship, being called the Three Half Moons, manned
with eight and thirty men, and well fenced with
munitions the better to encounter their enemies
withal ; having wind and tide, set forth from Portsmouth in
the year 1563, and bent her journey towards Seville, a city
in Spain : intending there to traffic with them.

And falling near the Straits of Gibraltar; they perceived
themselves to be beset round about with eight galleys of
the Turks, in such wise that there was no way for them
to fly or escape away : but that either they must yield
or else be sunk. Which the Owner perceiving, manfully
encouraged his company; exhorting them “ valiantly to
show their manhood, showing them that GOD was their
GOD and not their enemy’s, requesting them also not to
faint in seeing such a heap of their enemies ready to devour
them:” putting them in mind also “ that if it were GOD’s

140 Eight Turkish galleys capture the ship, [^y1^:

pleasure to give them into their enemies’ hands; it was not
they that ought to show one displeasant look or countenance
there against: but to take it patiently and not to prescribe
a day and time for their deliverance as the citizens of
Bethuliah did \Judith , v. 24] ; but to put themselves
under His mercy.” And again, “ if it were His mind and
goodwill to show His mighty power by them; if their enemies
were ten times so many, they were not able to stand in their
hands.” Putting them likewise in mind of “the old and
ancient worthiness of their countrymen: who in the hardest
extremities have always most prevailed ; and gone away
conquerors, yea, and where it hath been almost impossible.”
“ Such,” quoth he, “ hath been the valiantness of our
countrymen ; and such hath been the mighty power of our
GOD.”

With such other like encouragements, exhorting them to
behave themselves manfully ; they fell all on their knees
making their prayers briefly unto GOD : who being all risen
up again, perceived their enemies by their signs and defiances
bent to the spoil, whose mercy was nothing else but cruelty.
Whereupon every man took him to his weapon.

Then stood up one Grove the Master, being a comely
man, with his sword and target ; holding them up in defiance
against his enemies. So likewise stood up the Owner, the
Master’s Mate, Boatswain, Purser, and every man well
appointed. Now likewise sounded up the drums, trumpets,
and flutes, which would have encouraged any man ; had he
never so little heart or courage in him.

Then taketh him to his charge, John Fox the Gunner, in
the disposing of his pieces in order to the best effect : and
sending his bullets towards the Turks; who likewise bestowed
their pieces thrice as fast towards the Christians. But shortly
they drew near, so that the bowmen fell to their charge in
sending forth their arrows so thick amongst the galleys ; and
also in doubling their shot so sore upon the galleys, that
there were twice so many of the Turks slain as the number
of the Christians were in all. But the Turks discharged
twice as fast against the Christians, and so long; that the
ship was very sore stricken and bruised under water.
Which the Turks perceiving, made the more haste to come
aboard the ship; which ere they could do, many a Turk

AjSiynis79.‘] The crew are made galley slaves. 141

bought it dearly with the loss of his life. Yet was all in vain,
and boarded they were : where they found so hot a skirmish,
that it had been better they had not meddled with the feast.
For the Englishmen showed themselves men indeed, in
working manfully with their brown bills and halberds ; where
the Owner, Master, Boatswain, and their company stood to
it so lustily, that the Turks were half dismayed. But chiefly
the Boatswain showed himself valiant above the rest, for he
fared [went] among the Turks like a wood [enraged] lion ; for
there were none of them that either could or durst stand in
his face : till at the last there came a shot from the Turks,
which brake his whistle asunder and smote him on the breast,
so that he fell down ; bidding them farewell and to be of good
comfort, encouraging them likewise to win praise by death
rather than to live captives in misery and shame. Which
they hearing, indeed intended to have done, as it appeared by
their skirmish; but the press and store [number] of the Turks
was so great, that they were not long able to endure it : but
were so overpressed, that they could not wield their weapons.
By reason whereof, they must needs be taken; which none of
them intended to have been, but rather to have died : except
only the Master’s Mate, who shrank from the skirmish like a
notable coward ; esteeming neither the valour of his name,
nor accounting the present example of his fellows, nor having
respect to the miseries whereunto he should be put. But in
fine, so it was; that the Turks were victors: whereof they
had no great cause to rejoice or triumph.

Then would it have grieved any hard heart to see these
infidels so violently intreating the Christians, not having any
respect unto their manhood which they had tasted of ; nor yet
respecting their own state, how they might have met with such
a booty [prey] as might have given them the overthrow : but
no remorse hereof, or any thing else doth bridle their fierce
and tyrannous dealing, but that the Christians must needs
go to the galleys to serve in new offices. And they were no
sooner in them, but their garments were pulled over their ears
and torn from their backs : and they set to the oars.

I will make no mention of their miseries, being now under
their enemies’ raging stripes. I think there is no man will
judge their fare good, or that bodies unladen with stripes,
and not pestered with too much heat and also with too much

142 T HE SLAVE PRISON AT ALEXANDRIA. [A*

cold : but I will go to my purpose, which is to show the end of
those who, being in mere [utter] misery, continually do call
on GOD with a steadfast hope that He will deliver them; and
with a sure faith that He can do it.

Nigh to the city of Alexandria, being a haven town, and
under the dominion of the Turks ; there is a road, being made
very fencible with strong walls : whereinto the Turks do
customably bring their galleys on shore every year in the
winter season, and there do trim them and lay them up
against the spring time. In which road, there is a prison
wherein the captives, and such prisoners as serve in the
galleys are put for all that time, until the seas be calm and
passable for the galleys : every prisoner being most
grievously ladened with irons on their legs to their great
pain, and sore disabling of them to taking any labour. Into
which prison were these Christians put ; and fast warded all
the winter season. But ere it was long, the Master and the
Owner, by means of friends, were redeemed. The rest
abiding still by the misery; while that they were all, through
reason of their ill-usage and worse fare, miserably starved :
saving one John Fox, who — as some men can abide harder
and more misery than some others can ; so can some likewise
make more shift and work more devices to help their state
and living than some others can do — being somewhat skilful
in the craft of a barber, by reason thereof made great shift in
helping his fare now and then with a good meal. Insomuch,
till at the last, GOD sent him favour in the sight of the
Keeper of the prison ; so that he had leave to go in and out
to the road at his pleasure, paying a certain stipend unto the
Keeper, and wearing a lock about his leg. Which liberty like¬
wise six more had upon like sufferance ; who — by reason of
their long imprisonment, not being feared or suspected to
start aside, or that they would work the Turks any mischief —
had liberty to go in and out of the said road in such manner
as this John Fox did; with irons on their legs, and to
return again at night.

In the year of our Lord 1577, in the winter season, the
galleys happily coming to their accustomed harbour, and
being discharged of their masts, sails, and other such furniture
as unto galleys do appertain ; and all the masters and mariners
of them being then nested in their own homes : there

AJulyidS79-] Fox & Unticaro plan the escape. 143

remained in the prison of the said road two hundred three¬
score and eight Christian prisoners, who had been taken by
the Turks’ force ; and were of sixteen sundry nations. Among
which, there were three Englishmen, whereof one was named
John Fox of Woodbridge in Suffolk; the other William
Wickney of Portsmouth in the county of Southampton, and
the third Robert Moore of Harwich in the county of Essex.
Which John Fox having been thirteen or fourteen years under
their gentle entreatance, and being too too weary thereof,
minding his escape ; weighed with himself by what means it
might be brought to pass ; and continually pondering with
himself ; thereof took a great heart unto him, in hope that
GOD would not be always scourging His children, and never
ceasing to pray Him to further his pretended [intended]
enterprise, if that it should redound to His glory.

Not far from the road, and somewhat from thence at one
side of the city, there was a certain victualling house ; which
one Peter Unticaro had hired, paying also a certain fee
unto the Keeper of the road. This Peter Unticaro was a
Spaniard born, and a Christian, and had been prisoner above
thirty years ; and never practised any means to escape, but
kept himself quiet without touch or suspect of any conspiracy:
until that now this John Fox using much thither; they
brake one to another their minds, concerning the restraint
of their liberty and imprisonment. So that this John Fox
at length opening unto this Unticaro the device which he
would fain put in practice, made privy one more to this their
intent. Which three debated of this matter at such times
as they could compass to meet together; insomuch, that at
seven weeks’ end they had sufficiently concluded how the
matter should be, if it pleased GOD to further them thereto.
Who making five more privy to this their device, whom
they might safely trust ; determined in three nights after to
accomplish their deliberate purpose.

Whereupon the said John Fox and Peter Unticaro and
the other six appointed to meet all together in the prison the
next day, being the last day of December [1576 a.d.] ; where
John Fox certified the rest of the prisoners what their
intent and device was, and how and when they minded to
bring their purpose to pass : who thereunto persuaded them
without much ado to further their device. Which the same

144 Fox’S OLD RUSTY SWORD BLADE. [A'j^“ds^.

John Fox seeing, delivered unto them a sort [number] of
files, which he had gathered together for this purpose, by
the means of Peter Unticaro : charging them that every
man should be ready discharged of his irons by eight o’clock
on the next day at night.

On the next day at night, this said John Fox and his six
other companions, being all come to the house of Peter
Unticaro; passed the time away in mirth for fear of suspect
till the night came on, so that it was time for them to put in
practice their device: sent Peter Unticaro to the Master
of the Road, in the name of one of the Masters of the city
with whom this Keeper was acquainted and at whose request
he also would come at the first ; who desired him to take the
pains to meet him there, promising him that he would bring
him back again. The Keeper agreed to go with him, willing
the warders not to bar the gate ; saying, “ that he would not
stay long, but would come again with all speed.”

In the mean season, the other seven had provided them of
such weapons as they could get in that house : and John
Fox took him to an old rusty sword blade, without either
hilt or pommel ; which he made to serve his turn, in bending
the hand end of the sword, instead of a pommel : and the
others had got such spits and glaives as they found in the
house.

The Keeper now being come into the house, and perceiving
no light, nor hearing any noise ; straightway suspected the
matter: and returning backward, John Fox, standing behind
the corner of the house, stepped forth unto him ; who
perceiving it to be John Fox said, “ O Fox! what have I
deserved of thee, that thou shouldest seek my death ? ”
“Thou villain,” quoth Fox, “hast been a bloodsucker of many
a Christian’s blood ; and now thou shalt know what thou
hast deserved at my hands.” Wherewith he lifted up his
bright shining sword of ten years’ rust, and stroke him so
main a blow, as therewithal his head clave asunder; so
that he fell stark dead to the ground. Whereupon Peter
Unticaro went in and certified the rest how the case stood
with the Keeper; who came presently forth and some with
their spits ran him through, and the other with their glaives
hewed him asunder, cut off his head, and mangled him so,
that no man should discern what he was.

Unticaro, laden with money, is killed. 145

Then marched they toward the road, whereinto they
entered softly ; where were six warders : one of whom asked,
saying “Who was there?” Quoth Fox and his company
“All friends.” Which when they were all within proved
contrary ; for, quoth Fox, “ My masters, here is not to every
man, a man ; wherefore look you play your parts.” Who
so behaved themselves indeed, that they had despatched
these six quickly. Then John Fox, intending not to be
barred of his enterprise, and minding to work surely in that
which he went about ; barred the gate surely, and planted a
cannon against it.

Then entered they into the Gaoler’s lodge, where they
found the keys of the fortress and prison by his bedside ; and
there had they all better weapons. In this chamber was a
chest, wherein was a rich treasure, and all in ducats ; which
this Peter Unticaro and two more, opening, stuffed them¬
selves so full as they could between their shirts and their
skin: which John Fox would not once touch, and said, “that
it was his and their liberty whether he sought for, to the
honour of his GOD ; and not to make a mart of the wicked
treasure of the infidels.” Yet did these words sink nothing
into their stomachs, “ they did it for a good intent ; ” so did
Saul save the fattest oxen to offer unto the LORD, and they
to serve their own turn. But neither did Saul escape the
wrath of GOD therefore ; neither had these that thing which
they desired so, and did thirst after. Such is GOD’s justice.
He that they put their trust in to deliver them from the
tyrannous hands of their enemies; He, I say, could supply
their want of necessaries.

Now these eight being armed with such weapons as they
thought well of ; thinking themselves sufficient champions
to encounter a stronger enemy, and coming unto the prison,
Fox opened the gates and doors thereof, and called forth all
the prisoners : whom he set, some to ramming up the gate,
some to the dressing up of a certain galley, which was the
best in all the road, and was called the Captain of Alexandria ;
whereinto some carried masts, sails, oars, and other such
furniture as doth belong to a galley.

At the prison, were certain warders; whom John Fox and
his company slew. In the killing of whom, there were eight
more of theTurkswhich perceived them, and got themselves to
L K 4

146 They float a galley, & pass the forts.

the top of the prison; unto whom John Fox and his company
were fain to come by ladders, where they found a hot
skirmish. For some of them were slain, some wounded, and
some but scared and not hurt. As John Fox was thrice
shot through his apparel and not hurt; Peter Unticaro
and the other two that had armed themselves with ducats
were slain, as not able to wield themselves, being so pestered
with the weight and uneasy carrying of the wicked and
profane treasure ; and also divers Christians were as well
hurt about that skirmish as Turks slain.

Amongst the Turks, was one thrust through, who (let us
not say it was ill fortune) fell off from the top of the prison
wall, and made such a lowing ; that the inhabitants there¬
about, as here and there scattering stood a house or two,
came and dawed [aroused] him : so that they understood the
case, how that the prisoners were paying their ransoms :
wherewith they raised both Alexandria, which lay on
the west side of the road, and a castle at the city’s end
next to the road, and also another fortress which lay
on the north side of the road : so that now they had no
way to escape but one, which by man’s reason (the two
holds lying so upon the mouth of the road) might seem
impossible to be a way for them. So was the Red Sea
impossible for the Israelites to pass through, the hills and
rocks lay so on the one side, and their enemies compassed
them on the other. So was it impossible that the walls
of Jericho should fall down; being neither undermined nor
yet rammed at with engines, nor yet any man’s wisdom,
policy, or help set or put thereunto. Such impossibilities can
our GOD make possible. He that held the lions’ jaws from
rending Daniel asunder, yea, or yet from once touching him
to his hurt : cannot He hold the roaring cannons of this
hellish force ? He that kept the fierce rage in the hot
burning oven from the three children that praised His name :
cannot He keep the fierce flaming blasts from among his elect ?

Now is the road fraught [ filled ] with lusty soldiers,
labourers, and mariners, who are fain to stand to their
tackling ; in setting to every man his hand : some to the
carrying in of victuals, some of munition, some of oars, and
some one thing and some another : but most are keeping
their enemy from the wall of the road. But to be short,

Ajuiynxs79J Twenty-nine days without a compass. 147

there was no time misspent, no man idle, nor any man’s
labour ill-bestowed or in vain. So that in short time this
galley was ready trimmed up. Whereinto every man leaped
with haste, hoisting up the sails lustily : yielding themselves
to His mercy in whose hands are both wind and weather.

Now is this galley afloat, and out of the safety of the road.
Now have the two castles full power upon the galley. Now
is there no remedy but sink. How can it be avoided ? The
cannons let fly from both sides ; and the galley is even in the
midst, and between them both. What man can devise to
save it ? There is no man, but would think it must needs
be sunk.

There was not one of them that feared the shots ; which
went thundering round about their ears : nor yet were once
scarred or touched with five and forty shots which came from
the castles. Here did GOD hold forth His buckler ! He
shieldeth now this galley, and hath tried their faith to the
uttermost. Now cometh His special help, yea, even when
man thinks them past all help, then cometh He himself down
from heaven with His mighty power; then is His present
remedy, most ready pressed. For they sail away, being not
once touched with the glance of a shot, and are quickly out
of the Turkish cannons’ reach.

Then might they see them coming down by heaps to the
waterside, in companies like unto swarms of bees, making
show to come after them with galleys : in bustling themselves
to dress up the galleys ; which would be a swift piece of work
for them to do, for that they had neither oars, masts, sails,
cables, nor anything else ready in any galley. But yet they
are carrying them into them, some into one galley and some
into another ; so that, being such a confusion amongst them,
without any certain guide, it were a thing impossible to
overtake them. Besides that, there was no man that would
take charge of a galley; the weather was so rough, and
there was such an amazedness amongst them. And verily I
think their god was amazed thereat, it could not be but he
must blush for shame ; he can speak never a word for dulness,
much less can he help them in such an extremity. Well,
howsoever it is, he is very much to blame to suffer them to
receive such a gibe. But howsoever their god behaved
himself, our GOD showed Himself a GOD indeed, and that

148 Starving, they reach Candia.

He was the only living GOD ; for the seas were swift under
His faithful ones, which made the enemies aghast to behold
them ; a skilful pilot leads them, and their mariners bestir
them lustily : but the Turks had neither mariners, pilots, nor
any skilful Master that was in readiness at this pinch.

When the Christians were safe out of the enemy’s coast,
John Fox called to them all, willing them to be thankful
unto Almighty GOD for their delivery ; and most humbly
to fall down upon their knees, beseeching Him to aid them
unto their friends’ land and not to bring them into another
danger; since He had most mightily delivered them from so
great a thraldom and bondage.

Then when every man had made his petition, they fell
straightway to their labour with the oars, in helping one
another when they were wearied ; and with great labour
striving to come to some Christian land, as near as they
could guess by the stars. But the winds were so diverse,
one while driving them this way, another while that way ;
that they were now in a new maze, thinking that GOD
had forsaken them, and left them to a greater danger. And
forasmuch as there were no victuals now left in the galley,
it might have been cause to them (if they had been the
Israelites) to have murmured against their GOD ; but they
knew how that their GOD who had delivered them out of
Egypt, was such a loving and merciful GOD, as that He
would not suffer them to be confounded, in whom He had
wrought so great a wonder. But what calamity soever they
sustained, they knew that it was but for their further trial ;
and also (in putting them in mind of their farther misery)
to cause them not to triumph and glory in themselves
therefore. Having, I say, no victuals in the galley ; it might
seem one misery continually to fall upon another’s neck.
But to be brief, the famine grew to be so great, that in
twenty-eight days wherein they were on the sea, there died
eight persons ; to the astonishment of all the rest.

So it fell out, that upon the twenty-ninth day after they had
set out from Alexandria, they fell on the island of Candia, and
landed at Gallipoli : where they were much made of by the
Abbot and monks there ; who caused them to stay there,
while they were well refreshed and eased. They kept there
the sword wherewith John Fox had killed the Keeper;

AjSiyni579-] Fox AT LENGTH reaches England. 149

esteeming it as a most precious jewel, and hanged it up for
a monument.

When they thought good, having leave to depart from
thence; they sailed along the coast, till they arrived at
Tarento : where they sold their galley ; and divided it, every
man having a part thereof.

The Turks receiving so shameful a foil at their hands,
pursued the Christians ; and scoured the seas, where they
could imagine that they had bent their course. And the
Christians [in their galley] had departed from thence
[? Gallipoli ] on the one day in the morning ; and seven galleys
of the Turks came thither that night : as it was certified by
those who followed Fox and his company ; fearing lest he
should have been met with.

And then, they came afoot to Naples ; where they departed
asunder : every man taking him to his next way home.

From whence, John Fox took his journey unto Rome,
where he was well entertained of an Englishman, who
presented his worthy deed unto the Pope : who rewarded him
liberally, and gave him his letters to the King of Spain ;
where he was very well entertained of him there [in Spain],
who for this his most worthy enterprise, gave him twenty
pence a day.

From whence, being desirous to come into his own country ;
he came thither at such time as he conveniently could, which
was in the year of our LORD GOD, 1579. Who being come
into England, went into the Court ; and showed all his travel
unto the Council : who considering the state of this man, in
that he had spent and lost a great part of his youth in
thraldom and bondage, extended to him their liberality ; to
help maintain him now in age : to their right honour, and to
the encouragement of all true-hearted Christians.

The copy of the certificate for John Fox and his company,
made by the Prior and the brethren of Gallipoli ;
where they first landed.

E the Prior and Fathers of the Convent of the
Amerciates , of the city of Gallipoli , of the Order of
Preachers ; do testify that upon the 2gth of January last
past , 1577, there came into the said city a certain galley

150 The Pope’s letters on behalf of Fox.

from Alexandria , taken from the Turks , with two hundred and
fifty and eight Christians: whereof was principal, master John
Fox, an Englishman, Gunner ; one of the chief est that did
accomplish that great work, whereby so many Christians have
recovered their liberties . In token and remembrance whereof, upon
our earnest request to the same John Fox, he hath left an old
sword wherewith he slew the Keeper of the prison : which sword
we do as a monument and memorial of so worthy a deed, hang up
in the chief place of our Convent house . And for because all things
aforesaid are such as we will testify to be true , as they are orderly
passed and have therefore good credit, that so much as is above
expressed is true ; and for the more faith thereof , we the Prior and
Fathers aforesaid have ratified and subscribed these presents .
Given in Gallipoli the third of February, 1577.

I Friar Vincent Barba, Prior of the same place, confirm the
premises, as they are above written.

I Friar Albert Damaro of Gallipoli, Sub-Prior, confirm as
much.

I Friar A nthony Cellarer of Gallipoli, confirm as aforesaid.

I Friar Bartholomew of Gallipoli , confirm as above said.

I Friar Francis of Gallipoli , confirm as much .

The Bishop of Rome’s letters in behalf of
John Fox.

E it known unto all men to whom this writing shall
come, that the bringer hereof, John Fox , Englishman,
a Gunner, after he had served captive in the Turks'
galleys by the space of fourteen years, at length, through
GOD's help, taking good opportunity, the third of January last
bast, slew the Keeper of the prison {whom he first struck on the face) ;
together with four and twenty other Turks, by the assistance of his
fellow -prisoners : and with 266 Christians {of whose liberty he
was the author) launched from Alexandria, and from thence
arrived first at Gallipoli in Candia , and afterwards at Tarento
in Apulia: the written testimony and credit of which things, as
also of others , the same John Fox hath in public tables from
Naples.

Upon Easter Eve [29 th March, 1577], he came to Rome , and is
now determined to take his journey to the Spanish Court ; hoping

ful»] King Philip makes him a gunner. 15 i

there to obtain some relief towards his living : wherefore the poor
distressed man humbly beseecheth ; and we , in his behalf, do in the
bowels of Christ, desire you that taking compassion of his former
captivity and present penury, you do not only suffer him freely to
pass through all your cities and towns, but also succour him with
your charitable alms, the reward whereof you shall hereafter most
assuredly receive : which we hope you will afford to him, whom
with tender affection of pity, we commend unto you: At Rome ,
the 20 th of April, 1577.

Thomas Grolos, Englishman, Bishop of Astraphan.

Richard Silleun , Prior Anglice .

Andreas Ludovicus. Registrar to our sovereign Lord the
Pope : which for the greater credit of the premisses, have set my
seal to these presents. At Rome, the day and year above written.

Mauricius Clement. The Governor and Keeper of the
English Hospital in the city .

The King of Spain’s letters to the Lieutenant, for placing
of John Fox in the office of a Gunner, &c.

0 the illustrious Prince, Vespasian Gonzaga Colonna,
our Lieutenant and Captain General of our Realm of
Valencia. Having consideration that John Fox,
Englishman, hath served us, and was one of the most
which took away from the Turks a certain galley,
which they have brought to Tarento , wherein were two hundred,
fifty and eight Christian captives : We license him to practise,
and give him the office of a Gunner, and have ordained that he go
to our said Realm, there to serve in the said office in the galleys,
which by our commandment are lately made. A nd we do command
that you cause to be paid to him eight ducats pay a month, for the
time that he shall serve in the said galleys as a gunner, or till we
can otherwise provide for him : the said eight ducats monthly of the
money which is already of our provision present and to come, and
to have regard of those which come with him.

From Escurial the tenth of August, 15 77.

I the King

Juan del Goda.

And under that a confirmation of the Council.

152

Thomas Stevens, an English Jesuit.

The first Englishman known to have
reached the continent of India by
the Cape of Good Hope.

[Hakluyt, Voyages, 1589.]

A Letter written from Goa, the principal [Portuguese] >city
of all the East Indies, by one Thomas Stevens an
Englishman ; and sent to his father, Master Thomas
Stevens. Anno 1579.

Fter most humble commendations : these shall be
to crave your daily blessing, with like commenda¬
tions unto my mother ; and withal to certify you
of my being, according to your will and my duty.
I wrote unto you, taking my journey from Italy to
Portugal, which letters I think are come to your hands: so
that presuming thereupon, I think I have the less need at
this time to tell you the cause of my departing ; which
nevertheless in one word I may conclude, if I do but name
Obedience.

I came to Lisbon towards the end [i.e. the 26th] of March
eight days before the departure of the ships, so late that if they
had not been stayed about some weighty matters, they had
been long gone before our coming : insomuch that there were
others ordained to go in our places that the King’s provision
and ours also might not be in vain. Nevertheless our sudden
coming took place, and the 4th of April five ships departed
for Goa, wherein, besides shipmen and soldiers, there were a
great number of children which in the seas bear out better

Jo NoT?s79.] Solemn setting forth of the caracks. i 53

than men, and no marvel, when that many women also pass
[the seas] very well. The setting forth from the port, I need
not to tell how solemn it is, with trumpets and shooting of
ordnance. You may easily imagine it, considering that they
go in the manner of war.

The tenth of the aforesaid month, we came to the sight
of Porto Santo, near unto Madeira; where an English ship
set upon ours (which was then also alone) with a few shots,
which did no harm ; but after that our ship had laid out her
greatest ordnance, they straight departed as they came. The
English ship was very fair and great, which I was sorry to
see so ill occupied ; for she went roving about, so that we
saw her again at the Canary Isles : unto the which we came
the 13th of the said month, and good leisure we had to
wonder at the high mountain of the island of Teneriffe ;
for we wandered between that and the Great Canary four
days by reason of contrary winds. And briefly, such evil
weather we had until the 14th of May, that they despaired
to compass the Cape of Good Hope that year.

Nevertheless taking our voyage between Guinea and the
islands of Cape Verde, without seeing any land at all, we
arrived at length unto the coast of Guinea, which the Portu¬
guese so call chiefly that part of the burning zone which is
from the sixth degree unto the equinoctial ; in which parts
they suffered so many inconveniences of heat and lack
of winds, that they think themselves happy when they have
passed it. For sometimes the ship standeth there almost by
the space of many days ; sometimes she goeth but in such
order that it were almost as good to stand still. And the
greatest part of this coast is not clear but thick and cloudy ;
full of thunder and lightning, and rain so unwholesome that
if the water stand a little while, all is full of worms : and falling
on the meat which is hung up, it maketh it straight full of
worms. Along all that coast we oftentimes saw a thing
swimming upon the water like a cock’s comb (which they
call a Ship of Guinea ) [a Nautilus ] but the colour much fairer ;
which comb standeth upon a thing almost like the swimmer
[bladder] of a fish in colour and bigness, and beareth under
the water, strings ; which saveth it from turning over. This
thing is so poisonous that a man cannot touch it without
great peril. In this coast, that is to say, from the 6th degree

154 The variation of the com pass. [iotn^

[North] unto the equinoctial, we spent no less than thirty
days, partly with contrary winds, partly with calm.

The 30th of May we passed the equinoctial with conten-
tation, directing our course, as well as we could to pass
the promontory : but in all that gulf, and in all the way
besides, we found so often calms that the expertest mariners
wondered at it. And in places where are always wont to be
most horrible tempests, we found most quiet calms, which
were very troublesome to those ships [the caracks ] ; which be
the greatest of all other and cannot go without good winds.
Insomuch that when it is a tempest almost intolerable for
other ships, and maketh them main [furl] all their sails; these
hoist up theirs, and sail excellently well; unless the waters
be too furious, which seldom happeneth in our navigation.
You shall understand, that being passed the line, they can¬
not straightway go the next way to the promontory ; but
according to the wind, they draw always as near south as
they can put themselves in the latitude of the point, which
is 350 30' [South] and then they take their course towards
the east, and so compass the point. But the wind served
us so, that at 30° [South] we did direct our course toward
the point or promontory of Good Hope.

You know that it is hard to sail from East to West,
because there is no fixed point in all the sky, whereby they
may direct their course: wherefore I shall tell you what
helps God provided for these men. There is not a fowl that
appeareth, or sign in the air or in the sea ; which they have
not written which have made the voyages heretofore.
Wherefore partly by their own experience, and pondering
withal what space the ship is able to make with such a wind
and such a direction, and partly by the experience of others,
whose books and navigations they have, they guess where¬
abouts they be touching degrees of longitude. For of lati¬
tude they be always sure. But the greatest and best industry
of all is to mark the variation of the needle or compass
which in the meridian of the island of Saint Michael, which
is one of the Azores, in the latitude of Lisbon, is just north,
and thence swerveth towards the east so much that be¬
twixt the meridian aforesaid and the point of Africa [i.e.
the Cape of Good Hope] it carrieth three or four quarters of
thirty- two [or in modern language, the magnetic variation at the

£ N0T1S79.] The wonders of the tropical Ocean. 155

Cape was at that time from 30° to 450 East.] And again in
the point of Africa, a little beyond the Point, that is called
Cape das Agulias (Agulhas f\ n English The Needles) itreturneth
again unto the north ; and that place passed, it swerveth
again toward the west, as it did before proportionably.

As touching our first signs, the nearer we came to the
people of Africa, the more strange kinds of fowls [birds\ ap¬
peared : insomuch that when we came within no less than
thirty leagues (almost an hundred miles) and six hundred
miles as we thought from any island, as good as 3,000
fowls of sundry kinds followed our ship, some of them so
great that their wings, being opened from one point to the
other, contained seven spans, as the mariners said. A mar¬
vellous thing to see how GOD provided so that in so wide a
sea these fowls are all fat and nothing wanteth them. The
Portuguese have named them all according to some property
which they have. Some they call Rush-tails because their
tails be not proportionable to their bodies, but long and
small like a rush. Some Forked-tails because they be very
broad and forked. Some Velvet-sleeves , because they have
wings of the colour of velvet, and boweth [ bendeth ] them as
a man boweth his elbow. This bird is always welcome, for
he appeareth nearest the Cape. I should never end if I
should tell all particulars; but it shall suffice briefly to touch
a few, which yet shall be sufficient, if you mark them, to give
occasion to glorify GOD in his wonderful works and such
variety in His creatures.

And to speak somewhat of fishes in all places of calm,
especially in the burning zone [i.e. the Tropics ] . Near the
line (for without [the Tropics ] we never saw any) there
waited on our ship fishes as long as a man, which they call
Tuber ones [the aboriginal West Indian name for sharks] . They
come to eat such things as from the ship fall into the sea,
not refusing men themselves if they light upon them : and
if they find any meat tied in the sea, they take it for theirs.
These have waiting on them six or seven small fishes
(which never depart) with gards blue and green round about
their bellies, like comely serving men, and they go two
or three before him and some on every side. Moreover
they have other fishes which cleave always unto their body
and seem to take such superfluities as grow about them, and

156 Carack nearly wrecked off the Cape. [IONoSv.fcIs79s:

they are said to enter into their bodies also to purge them if
they need. The mariners in time past have eaten of them,
but since they have seen them eat men, their stomachs abhor
them : nevertheless they draw them up with great hooks,
and kill of them as many as they can, thinking that they
have made a great revenge.

There is another kind of fish [the flying-fish] as big
almost as a herring, which hath wings and flieth, and they
are together in great number. These have two enemies :
the one in the sea, and the other in the air. In the sea, the
fish which is called the Albacore [the Portuguese for Dolphin]
as big as a salmon followeth them with great swiftness to
take them. This poor fish not being able to swim fast, for
he hath no fins but swimmeth with the moving of his tail,
shutting his wings, lifteth himself above the water, and
flieth not very high. The Albacore seeing that, although he
have no wings, yet giveth he a great leap out of the water,
and sometimes catcheth him; or else he keepeth himself
under the water, going that way as fast as he flieth. And
when the fish being weary of the air or thinking himself out
of danger, returneth into the water, the Albacore meeteth
with him : but sometimes his other enemy, the Sea Crow
catcheth him before he falleth.

With these and like sights, but always making our suppli¬
cations to GOD for good weather and salvation of the ship ;
we came at length unto the Point, so famous and feared of
all men. But we found there no tempest, only great waves.
Where our pilot was a little overseen. For whereas com¬
monly all other never come within sight of land, but seeing
signs ordinary and finding bottom, go their way sure and safe ;
he thinking himself to have wind at will, shot [steered] so nigh
the land, that the wind turning to the south and the waves
being exceeding great rolled us so near the land, that the
ship stood in less than fourteen fathoms of water, no more
than six miles from the Cape, which is called Las Agulias ;
and there we stood as utterly cast away. For under us were
rocks of main stone so sharp and cutting that no anchor
could hold the ship, the shore so evil that nothing could take
land, and the land itself so full of tigers and people that are
savage and killers of all strangers, that we had no hope
of life or comfort but only in GOD and a good conscience.

ioNoSv.eis79-] The carack goes outside Madagascar. 157

Notwithstanding after we had lost anchors, hoisting up the
sails for to get the ship a coast [to the coast] in some safer
place or when it should please GOD : it pleased His mercy
suddenly, where no man looked for help, to fill our sails with
wind from the land, and so we escaped, thanks be to GOD !
And the day following, being in the place where they are
always wont to catch fish, we also fell a fishing, and so
many they took, that they served all the ship for that day
and part of the next. And one of them pulled up a coral of
great bigness and price. For there they say (as we saw by
experience) that the coral grows in the manner of stalks
upon the rocks in the bottom, and waxes hard and red. The
day of peril was the 29th of July, 1579.

And you shall understand that the Cape passed ; there be
two ways to India, one within the Isle of Saint Lawrence
[Madagascar], which they take willingly, because they refresh
themselves at Mozambique a fortnight or a month, not with¬
out great need ; and thence in a month more, land at Goa.
The other is without the Isle of St. Lawrence, which they take
when they set forth so late and come so late to the Point that
they have no time to take theforesaid Mozambique : and then
they go heavily [sadly] because in this way they take no port,
and by reason of the long navigation, and want of food and
water, they fall into sundry diseases ; their gums wax great
and swell, and they are fain to cut them away ; their legs
swell and all the body becometh sore and so benumbed that
they cannot stir hand nor foot, and so they die for weakness,
others fall into fluxes [diarrhoea] and agues and die thereby.

And this way it was our chance to make, yet though we
had more than one hundred and fifty sick, there died not
past twenty-seven ; which loss they esteemed not much, in
respect of other times [i.e. voyages] . Though some of ours
[i.e. the company of Jesuits of whom Stevens was one] were
diseased in this sort ; yet thanks be to GOD, I had my health
all the way, contrary to the expectation of many. GOD send
me my health so well in the land, if it may be, to His honour
and service !

This way is full of privy rocks and quicksands, so that
sometimes we durst not sail by night ; but by the providence
of GOD we saw nothing nor never found bottom until we came
to the coast of India. When we had passed again the line

158 Are driven as far north as Socotra. [IONoSv.ei679'.

and were come again to the third degree [north] or somewhat
more, we saw crabs swimming on the water as though they
had been sodden [boiled] , but this was no sign of land. After,
about the eleventh degree, for the space of many days, more
than ten thousand fishes by estimation followed round about
our ship ; whereof we caught so many, that for fifteen days
we did eat nothing else, and they served our turn very well :
for at this time we had neither meat nor almost any thing
else to eat, our navigation growing so long that it drew near
to seven months, whereas commonly they go it in five ; I
mean when they sail the inner way [1 through the Mozambique
Channel ]. But these fishes were not sign of land, but rather
of deep sea.

At length we took a couple of birds, which were a kind of
hawks ; whereof they joyed much, thinking that they had been
of India, but indeed they were of Arabia, as we found after¬
wards. And we that thought we had been near India, were
in the same latitude near Socotra, an isle in the mouth of
the Red Sea. But there GOD sent us great winds from the
north-east or north-north-east, whereupon unwillingly they
bare up toward the east, and thus we went ten days without
seeing sign of land, whereby they perceived their error : for
they had directed their course before, always north-east,
coveting to multiply [pass over] degrees of latitude ; but partly
the difference [variation] of the needle, and most of all the
running seas [currents] , which at that time ran north-west,
had drawn us to this new danger, had not GOD sent us this
wind, which at once waxed larger [veered] and restored us
to our right course.

These running seas [currents] be so perilous that they de¬
ceive the most part of the Governors [pilots of the caracks] and
some be so little curious, contenting themselves with ordinary
experience that they care not to seek out any means to know
when they swerve, neither by the compass nor by any other
trial.

The first sign of land was certain fowls [birds] which they
knew to be of India. The second was boughs of palms and
sedges. The third, snakes swimming on the water, and a
substance which they call by the name of a coin of money,
as broad and as round as a groat, wonderfully printed and
stamped of Nature like unto some coin. And these two last

loNovfIsS Welcomed at Goa, with great charity. 159

signs be so certain that the next day after, if the wind serve,
they see land, which we did to our great joy; when all our
water (for you know they make no beer in those parts) and
victuals began to fail us. And to Goa we came the 24th of
October 1570; there being received with surpassing great
charity.

The people be tawny, but not disfigured in their lips and
noses as the Moors and Kaffirs of Ethiopia. They that be
not of reputation, or at least the most part, go naked, save
an apron of a span long and as much in breadth before them,
and a lace two fingers broad before them, girded about with
a string, and no more : and thus they think themselves as
well as we with all our trimming.

Of the fruits and the trees that be here I cannot now
speak, for I should make another letter as long as this. For
hitherto I have not seen any tree here, whose like I have
seen in Europe ; the vine excepted, which nevertheless here
is to no purpose, so that all the wines are brought out of
Portugal. The drink of the country is good water, or wine of
the palm tree or of a fruit called cocoas.

And this should suffice for this time. If GOD send me my
health, I shall have opportunity to write to you once again.
Now the length of my letter compelleth me to take my leave,
and thus I wish your most prosperous health.

From Goa, the tenth of November 1579.

Your loving Son,

Thomas Stevens.

1 6 1

The Third Hawkins Voyage.

[Pir?t Narrative by a Survivor.]

The relation of David Ingram, of Barking, in the county of
Essex, sailor, being now about the age of forty years,
of sundry things which he with others did see in
travelling by land from the most northerly part of the
Bay of Mexico (where he with many others were set
on shore by Master Hawkins), through a great part of
America, until they came within fifty leagues, or
thereabouts, of Cape Breton : which he reported unto
Sir Francis Walsingham Knight, Her Majesty’s
Principal Secretary of State, and to Sir George Peck-
ham Knight, and divers others of good judgement and
credit, in August and September, 1582.

[Sloane MS. 1447.

[Also printed, with variations, in HAKLUYT’S Voyages , p. 557. Ed. 1589.]

This narrative was omitted by Hakluyt, in his revised and enlarged
edition of his Voyages , 3 vols., 1599-1600 : fol.

Rev. S. Purchas in his Pilgrimes , iv. ft. 179, Ed. 1625, states :

“ As for David Ingram’s perambulation to the north parts, Master
Hakluyt, in his first edition, published the same; but it seemeth some
incredibilities of his reports caused him to leave him out in the next im¬
pression ; the reward of lying being, not to be believed in truths.” — See
R- Hakluyt’s Discourse concerning Western Planting , ft. 220. (Maine
Historical Society, Second Series) Cambridge, Mass., 1877-78.

He hath

Bout the beginning of October, anno Domini
1568, David Ingram, with the rest of his
company, being a hundred persons in all,
were set on land by Master John Haw¬
kins, about six leagues to the west of the
river Cumina or Rio de Mynas which
standeth about 140 leagues west-and-by-
north from the Cape of Florida,
travelled in those countries from beyond Terra

1 62 Ingram, Browne, and Twide walk, in i i

Florida , extending towards the Cape Breton, about eleven
months in the whole; and about seven months thereof in
those countries which lie towards the north of the river of
May. In which time, as the said Ingram thinketh, he
travelled, by land, 2,000 miles, at the least : and never con¬
tinued in any one place above three or four days ; saving at
the city of Balma, where he stayed six or seven days.

There are in those parts, saith he, very many kings, com¬
monly within 100 or 120 miles one from another ; who are at
continual wars together.

The first king that they came before, dwelt in a country
called Giricka; who caused them to be stripped naked, and,
wondering greatly at the whiteness of their skins, let them
depart without further harm.

The kings in those countries are clothed with painted or
coloured garments ; and thereby you may know them : and
they wear great precious stones, which commonly are rubies,
being six inches long and two inches broad ; and if the same
be taken from them, either by force or sleight, they are
presently deprived of their kingdoms.

When they do mean to speak with any person publicly,
they are always carried by men in a sumptuous chair of silver
or crystal, garnished about with sundry sorts of precious
stones.

And if you will speak with the king, at your first approach¬
ing near him, you must kneel down on both your knees; and
then arise again and come somewhat nearer him, within
your length, then kneel down again, as you did before. Then
take of the earth or grass between both your hands, kissing
the backside of each of them, and put the earth or grass on
the crown of your head : and so, come and kiss the king’s
feet. Which circumstances being performed, you may then
arise, and stand up, and talk with him.

The noblemen, and such as be in special favour with the
King, do commonly wear feathers in the hair of their heads,
for the most part, of a bird as big as a goose, of russet colour.
And this is the best mark that this Examinate can give to
know them by.

There is, in some of those countries, great abundance of
pearls. For in every cottage, he found pearls ; in some

Sept"^.'] MONTHS, FROM TAMPICO, TO CAPE BRETON. 1 63

houses a quart, in some a pottle [half a gallon], in some a
peck, more or less : where he did see some as great as an
acorn : and Richard Browne, one of his companions, found
one of these great pearls in one of their canoes or boats,
which pearl he gave to Monsieur Champaigne, who took
them aboard his ship, and brought them to Newhaven
[Havre], in France.

All the people generally do wear Manylions or bracelets as
big as a man’s finger, upon each of their arms ; and the like
on the small of each of their legs : whereof commonly one
is gold, and two are silver. And many of the women also do
wear great plates of gold covering their bodies in manner of
a pair of Currettes, and many bracelets and chains of great
pearl.

The people commonly are of good favour, feature, and shape
of body, of growth about five feet high, somewhat thick, with
their faces and skins of colour like an olive ; and towards the
north, somewhat tawny, but some of them are painted with
divers colours. They are very swift of foot. The hair of
their head is shaven in sundry places, and the rest of their
head is traced [tattooed] .

In the north parts, they are clothed with beasts’ skins, the
hairy side being next to their body in winter.

They are naturally very courteous, if you do not abuse
them either in their persons or goods, but use them cour¬
teously. The killing and taking of their beasts, birds, fishes,
and fruits cannot offend them ; except it be of their cattle,
which they keep about their houses, as kine, guinea hens,
and such like.

If any of them do hold up both their hands at length to¬
gether, and kiss the backs of them on both sides : then you
may undoubtedly trust them ! for it is the greatest token of
friendship that may be.

If any of them shall come unto you with a horse’s tail in
his hand, then you may assure yourself that he is a messenger
from the king; and to him, you may safely commit your per¬
son, or go to the king or anywhere else, or by him send any¬
thing or message to the King. For these men are always
either Ensign [flag] -bearers in the wars, or the king’s mes¬
sengers who will never betray you.

164 Arms of North American Indians.

To allure the people to speech, if you will have any of the
people to come aboard your ship, hang out some white cloth
upon a staff, for it is a sign of amity.

If you will bargain for ware with them ; leave the things
that you will sell upon the ground, and go from it a pretty
way off. Then will they come and take it, and set down
such wares as they will give for it in the place : and if you
think it not sufficient, leave the wares with signs that you
like it not ; and they will bring more until either they or you
be satisfied, or will give no more. Otherwise you may hang
your wares upon a long pole’s end ; and so put more or less on
it, until they have agreed on the bargain.

When they go to the wars, they march in battle [ar]ray
two and three in a rank.

Their trumpets, they do make of certain beasts’ [elephants'
in MS.] teeth. They have a kind of drum, which they make
of beasts’ skins. They have shields and targets of the skins
of beasts, compassed with willow twigs ; and being dried,
they are strong and defensible.

Their weapons are darts headed with iron: the heads are
two fingers broad, and half a foot long, which are fastened
within a socket.

They have also short bows strung with the bark of trees,
being half an inch broad, and the arrows are of bone, a yard
long, nocked and headed with silver and bone. Their arrows
are of small force within a stone’s cast of them, and you may
put them by, with a staff, a pretty way off.

They have short broad swords of black iron, of the length
of a yard, or very near an ell ; bearing edges thicker than
backs of knives : somewhat like the foils in our fence schools.

They have crooked knives of iron, somewhat like a wood-
knife or hanger ; wherewith they will carve excellently both
in wood and bone.

Their Ensign [flag] is a horse’s tail, with glass or crystal
in some of them; being dyed in sundry colours, as red, yellow,
green, &c.

The people in those countries are professed enemies to the
Cannibals or man eaters. The Cannibals do mostly inhabit
between Norumbegc and Barimuthe. They have teeth like
dogs’ teeth ; and thereby you may know them.

Dsept%r] Names of towns in North America. 165

In the wars they do pitch their camp as near as they
may unto some wood of palm trees ; which yieldeth them
meat, drink, and a present [instant] remedy against poisoned
arrows.

Their buildings are weak and of small force. Their houses
are made round like dove houses, and they do dwell together
in towns and villages.

And some of them have banquetting houses in the top of
them, made like the lover [louvre 1 of a hall, built with pillars
of massy silver and crystal, framed square ; whereof many of
them are as big as a boy’s leg of fifteen years of age, and
some less.

This Examinate did also see divers towns and villages, as

Gunda, a town, a flightshot in length.

Ochala, a great town, a mile long.

Balma, a rich city, a mile and a half long.

Bega, a country, and town of that name three quarters
of a mile long. There is a good store of ox hides.

Saguanathe, a town almost a mile in length.

Barimuthe, a city a mile and a quarter long. Also there
is a river and town of that name, but less than the first
above named.

Guinda, a small town, and a river; both of that name.
And this is the most northerly part that this Examinate
was at.

[There are, besides those towns aforenamed, many other
great towns, which this Ingram passed by. They are com¬
monly distant six or eight miles one from the other : which
have divers small villages within eight or ten miles from
them.]

They have in every house, scoops, buckets, and divers other
vessels of massy silver ; wherewith they do throw out
water and dust, and otherwise do employ them to their
necessary uses in their houses. All which this Examinate
did see common and usual in some of these countries ;
especially where he found the great pearls.

There are also great rivers ; at the heads of which, this
Examinate and his companions did find sundry pieces of gold,
some as big as a man’s fist ; the earth being washed away
with the water.

1 66 The natural products of the country. [sept^S;

And in other places, they did see great rocks of crystal,
which grew at the heads of great and many rivers ; being
enough in quantity to load ships.

There are also in those parts, plenty of fine furs, unknown
to this Examinate ; dressed after the manner of the country.

The people there do burn a kind of white turf or earth,
which they dig out of the marshes, a fathom deep in the
ground. It burneth very clear, and smelleth as sweet as
musk : and that earth is as wholesome, sweet, and comfort¬
able to smell unto, as any pomander. They do make their
fire of this earth for the sweetness thereof, having great
abundance of wood.

When they want fire, they take briars, and rub them very
hard between their fists ; and so, with hard and often rubbing,
they kindle and make fire.

They have great plenty of iron : and there is also great
plenty of mineral salt in the marish ground which looketh
reddish ; a thing necessary for the great fishing near the
sea shore, which are here abundant, and the fish large and
huge.

The ground and country is most excellent, fertile, and
pleasant ; and especially towards the River of May. For the
grass of the rest is not so green as it is in those parts ; for the
other is burnt away with the heat of the sun.

All the country is good and most delicate ; having great
plains as large and as fair, in many places, as may be seen :
being as plain as a board.

And then great and huge woods, of sundry kinds of trees,
as cedars, date trees, lignum vita, bombassa , plantains, and
bushes, and also great abundance of those trees which carrieth
a thick bark that biteth like pepper (of which kind, young
Master Winter brought home part from the Straits of
Magellan), with the fruitful Palm tree, and a great plenty
of other sweet trees to this Examinate unknown.

And after that, plains again ; and, in other places, great
closes of pasture environed with most delicate trees instead of
hedges ; they being, as it were, set by the hands of men.

Yet the best grass, for the most part, is in the high
countries, somewhat far from the seaside and great rivers ;
by reason that the low grounds there be so rank, that the
grass groweth faster than it can be eaten, whereby the old

Ds";] Flora of North America. 167

grass lieth withered thick, and the new grass groweth
through it ; whereas in the upper parts, the grass and ground
is most excellent and green ; the ground not being over¬
charged with any old withered grass, as is afore specified.

The Palm tree aforesaid carrieth hairs on the leaves thereof,
which reach to the ground : whereof the Indians do make
ropes and cords for their cotton beds, and do use the same
for many other purposes. The which tree, if you prick with
your knife, about two feet from the root, it will yield a wine
in colour like whey, but in taste strong and somewhat like
Bastard ; which is most excellent drink : but it will distemper
both your head and your body, if you drink too much thereof ;
as our strong wines will do in these parts.

The branches of the top of the tree are most excellent meat,
raw, after you have pared away the bark.

Also there is a red oil that cometh out of the root of this
tree, which is most excellent against poisoned arrows and
weapons: for by it they do recover themselves of their
poisoned wounds.

There is a tree called the Plantain, with a fruit growingon
it like a pudding, which is most excellent meat, raw.

They have also a red berry, like a peascod, called Guiathos,
two or three inches long, which groweth on short bushes full
of pricks like the sloe or thorn tree ; and the fruit eateth like
a green raisin, but sharper somewhat. They stamp this
berry to make wine thereof ; which they keep in vessels made
of wood. They have also, in many places, vines which bear
grapes as big as a man’s thumb.

There is also a great plenty of herbs, and of all kind of
flowers, as roses and gillyflowers, like ours in England : and
many others which he knew not. Also they have a kind of
grain [maize], the ear whereof is as big as the wrist of a man’s
arm. The grain is like a flat pease. It maketh very good
bread, and white.

They do also make bread of the root called cassava : which
they do dry, and beat it as small as they can, and temper it
with water ; and so bake it, in cakes, on a stone.

There is also a great plenty of buffes [buffaloes], bears,
horses, kine, wolves, foxes, deer, goats, sheep, hares, and
conies. Also other cattle like ours, and very many unlike

168 Fauna of North America. [s*eJ?SS:

ours, to this Examinate unknown, the most part being wild :
the hides and skins of them are good merchandise.

There is very great store of those buffes, which are beasts
as big as two oxen, in length almost twenty feet, having long
ears like a bloodhound, with long hairs about their ears, their
horns be crooked like ram’s horns, their eyes black, their
hairs long, black, rough, and shagged as a goat. The hides
of these beasts are sold very dear. This beast doth keep
company only by couples, male and female ; and doth always
fight with others of the same kind, when they do meet.

There is also a great plenty of deer — red, white, and
speckled. This last sort this Examinate knoweth not.

There is also a great plenty of another kind of sheep, which
carry a kind of coarse wool. This sheep is very good meat ;
although the flesh be very red. They are exceeding fat ; and
of a nature loath to rise when they are lain, which is always
from five o’clock at night until five o’clock in the morning,
between which time you may easily kill them ; but after they
be on foot, they are very wild, and rest not in one place, living
together in herds, in some 500, as it happeneth, more or less.
And these red sheep are most[ly] about the Bay of Saint
Mary, as this Examinate guesseth.

There are bears, both black and white. There are wolves.
The foxes have their skins more grizzled than ours in England.
There are conies, white, red, and grey, in every place in
great plenty.

This Examinate did also see in those countries, a mon¬
strous beast twice as big as a horse, and in proportion like to
a horse, in mane, hoof, hair, and neighing; saving it was
small towards the hinder parts like a greyhound. This beast
hath two teeth or horns, of a foot long, growing straight
forth by their nostrils. They are natural enemies of the horse.

He did also see in that country, both elephants and ounces.
He did also see one another strange beast bigger than a bear.
He had neither head nor neck. His eyes and mouth were
in his breast. This beast is very ugly to behold, and
cowardly of kind. It beareth a very fine skin like a rat, full
of silver hairs.

There are in those countries, abundance of russet parrots,
but very few green. There are also birds of all sorts, as we
have ; and many strange birds, to this Examinate unknown.

The American Indians speak Welsh! 169

There is great plenty of guinea hens, which are tame birds,
and proper to the inhabitants, as big as geese, very black of
colour, having feathers like down. There is also a bird
called a Flamingo, whose feathers are very red. It is bigger
than a goose, billed like a showeler, and very good meat.

There is also another kind of fowl in that country which
hunteth [ haunteth ] the rivers, near unto the islands. They
are of the shape and bigness of a goose ; but their wings are
covered with small yellow feathers, and cannot fly. You
may drive them before you like sheep. They are exceeding
fat, and very delicate meat. They have white heads, and
therefore the countrymen call them Penguins, which seemeth
to be a Welsh name [!]. And they have also in use divers
other Welsh words [!]. A matter worth the noting.

There is also a very strange bird, thrice as big as an eagle,
very beautiful to behold. His feathers are more orient
[brilliant] than a peacock’s feathers ; his eyes are glistering
as a hawk’s eyes, but as great as a man’s eyes : his head and
thigh as big as a man’s head and thigh. It hath a crest and
tuft of feathers of sundry colours, on the top of the head, like
a lapwing, hanging backwards. His beak and talons are in
proportion like eagles, but very huge and large.

Touching tempests and other strange monstrous things in
those parts, this Examinate saith, that he hath seen it light¬
ning and thunder, in summer season, by the space of four and
twenty hours together. The cause whereof, he judgeth to be
the heat of the climate.

He further saith, that there is a cloud, some time of the
year, seen in the air, which commonly turneth to great tem¬
pests. And that, some times of the year, there are great
winds in manner of whirlwinds.

Touching their religion, he saith, that they honour for
their god, a devil [? medicine man], which they call Collochio :
which speaketh unto them, sometimes in the likeness of a
black dog, and sometimes in the likeness of a black calf.

And some do honour the sun, the moon, and the stars.

He saith, that the people in those countries are allowed
many wives : some five, some ten, and a king sometimes a
hundred. And that adultery is very severely punished in the
following manner.

170 The English sailors defy the Devil [!]

The woman taken in adultery must, with her own hands,
cut the throat of the adulterer ; and the next of his kindred
doth likewise cut the throat of the adulteress.

Being asked, in what manner, they take their executions ?
he saith, “That they are brought to execution by certain
magistrates ; who deliver unto the woman, the knife where¬
with she cutteth the throat of the adulterer. Then appeareth
their Collochio , or devil, in the likeness aforesaid, and speaketh
unto them : and to that devil, the parties brought to execu¬
tion do great reverence, and with many prayers to it, they
do take their death.”

He saith that, “ Such persons as are put to death in such
sort, have not any of their friends buried with them. But
such as die naturally, have always buried with them, quick
[alive], one of their dearest friends to keep them company, and
to provide necessaries and victuals for them : who do wil¬
lingly consent thereto, being thereto persuaded by their
Collochio, or devil, whom they do worship.”

He saith further, that “ He and his two fellows (namely,
Richard Browne and Richard Twide) went unto a poor
man’s house, and there they did see the said Collochio, or
devil, with very great eyes like a black calf. Upon which
sight, Browne said ‘ There is the devil ! ’ and thereupon he
blessed himself, In the name of the Father ! and of the Son !
and of the Holy GHOST ! and Twide said very vehemently,
4 1 defy thee, and all thy works ! ’ and presently the Collo¬
chio shrank away in a stealing manner, forth of the doors,
and was seen no more unto them.”

Also they passed over many great rivers in those countries
in canoes or boats ; some four, some six, some eight, some
ten miles over : whereof one was so large that they could
scarce cross the same in four and twenty hours.

Also he saith that “in the same country, the people have
instruments of music made of a piece of a cane, almost a
foot long, being open at both ends : which, sitting down,
they smite upon their thighs and one of their hands, making
a pleasant kind of sound.”

And they do use another kind of instrument like a taber
[? banjo], covered with a white skin somewhat like parch¬
ment.

DS"J They come home in a French ship. 17 i

This Examinate can very well describe their gestures,
dancing, and songs.

After long travail, the aforesaid David Ingram with his
two companions Browne and Twide, came to the head of
a river called [Garinda,] which is 60 leagues west from Cape
Breton ; where they understood by the people of that country,
of the arrival of a Christian. Whereupon, they made their
repair to the seaside ; and there found a French Captain,
named Monsieur Champaigne : who took them unto his
ship, and brought them unto Newhaven [Havre] in France;
and from thence, they were transported unto England, Anno
Domini 1569.

This Monsieur Champaigne, with divers of his company,
wasbrought unto the village of Baryniathe, about twenty miles
up into the country, by the said Examinate and his two com¬
panions : by whose means, he had a trade with the people,
of divers sorts of fine furs ; and of great red leaves of trees
almost a yard long and about a foot broad, which he thinketh
are good for dyeing.

Also the said Monsieur Champaigne had there, for exchange
of trifling wares, a good quantity of rude and unwrought silver.

He further saith that, “ divers of the said Frenchmen,
which were in the said ship, called the Gargarine, are yet
living in [Honfleur], upon the coast of France, as he thinketh :
for he did speak with some of them within these three years ”
[i.e., since 1579].

About a fortnight after their coming from Newhaven into
England [in 1569J, this said Examinate and his two com¬
panions came to Master John Hawkins; who had set them
on shore upon the Bay of Mexico : and unto each of them, he
gave a reward.

Richard Browne, his companion, was slain, about five
years past [1577], in the Elizabeth of Master Cockens, of
London. And Richard Twide, his other companion died
at Ratcliffe, in John Sherwood’s house there, about three
years past [1579].

Guando is a word of salutation, as among us “ Good
morrow! ” “ Good even ! ” “ GOD save you ! ”
and the like.

172 Docility of the West Indian slaves, [^ept.^:

Garicona. A King.

Garaccona. A Lord.

Tona. Bread.

Kerucca . The Sun.

Also the said Examinate travelling towards the North,
found the Main sea [Gulf of St. Lawrence ] upon the north
side of America ; and travelled in sight thereof the space of
two whole days : where the people signified unto him, that
they had seen ships on the coast, and did draw upon the
ground the shape and figure of ships and of their sails and
flags.

Which thing specially proveth the passage of the North¬
west ; and is agreeable to the experience of Vasquez de
Coronado, who found a ship of China or Cataia upon the
North-west of America.

Also the said Examinate saith that “ there is an island
called Corrasau [Curagao] ; and there are in it, 5,000 or 6,000
Indians, at the least : and all those are governed by only
one Negro, who is but a slave to a Spaniard.

And, moreover [in other places ], the Spaniards will send
but one of their slaves with 100 or 200 of the Indians, when
they go to gather gold in the rivers descending from the
mountains. And when they shall be absent by the space
of 20 or 30 days’ [journey] at the least ; every one of the
Indians will nevertheless obey all the slave’s commandments,
with as great reverence as if he were their natural King ;
although there be never a Christian near them, by the space
of 100 or 200 miles : which argueth the great obedience of
those people, and how easily they may be governed when
they be once conquered.

In considering the exaggerations which led Hakluyt to reject
Ingram’s narrative as a tissue of falsehoods ; we must think of the
enormous stretch of country over which he claimed to have travelled,
from Tampico to Cape Breton, and of the diversities of climate, tribes,
customs, animals, birds, &c., which he has here jumbled up in a general
way.

It is also to be noted that this examination was taken some twelve
years after he had returned home ; in the year before that in which
Miles Phillips got back home, see/. 218. Had it been taken earlier,
his memory might have been somewhat fresher.

1 73

Second Narrative, by another
Survivor.

[Hakluyt. Voyages . 1589.]

A Discourse written by one Miles Phillips, Englishman, one
of the company put ashore in the West Indies by Master
John Hawkins in the year 1568. Containing many
special things of that country and of the Spanish Govern¬
ment [there] : but specially of their cruelties used to our
Englishmen ; and among the rest, to himself, for the
space of fifteen or sixteen years together, until, by good
and happy means, he was delivered from their bloody
hands, and returned to his own country, anno 1582 [3].

THE FIRST CHAPTER .

Wherein is shewn the day and time of our departure from the
coast of England ; with the number and names of the ships , their
Captains and M asters : and of our traffic and dealing upon the
coast of Africa .

Pon Monday, being the 2nd of October,
1567, the weather being reasonably fair*
our General [Admiral], Master John Haw¬
kins, having commanded all his Captains
and Masters to be in a readiness to make
sail with him ; he himself being embarked
in the Jesus (whereof was appointed for
Master, Robert Barret), hoisted sail, and

174 The Fleet slave hunting in Guinea ; [M-

departed from Plymouth, upon his intended voyage for the
parts of Africa and America ; being accompanied with five
other sail of ships, as, namely,

The Minion , wherein went for Captain, Master John
Hampton ; and John Garret, Master.

The William and John, wherein was Captain, Thomas
Bolton ; and James Raunce, Master.

The Judith, in whom was [subsequently] Captain,
Master Francis Drake, now Knight : and

The Angel, whose Master, as also the Captain and
Master of the Swallow, I now remember not.

And so sailing in company together, upon our voyage until
the 6th of the same month, an extreme storm then took us
near unto Cape Finisterre ; which [en]dured for the space of
four days, and so separated our ships that we had lost one
another : and the General, finding the Jesus to be in an ill case,
was in mind to give over the voyage, and to return home.
Howbeit the nth of the same month, the seas waxing calm,
and the wind coming fair ; he altered his purpose, and held
on the former intended voyage.

And so coming to the island of Gomera, being one of the
Islands of the Canaries, where, according to an order before
appointed, we met with all our ships which were before dis¬
persed ; we then took in fresh water, and departed from thence
the 4th of November; and holding on our course, upon the
18th of the same month, we came to an anchor upon the
coast of Africa, at Cape de Verde, in twelve fathom [s of]
water.

Here our General landed certain of our men, to the number
of 160 or thereabouts ; seeking to take some Negroes. And
they going up into the country, for the space of six miles,
were encountered with a great number of Negroes ; who with
their envenomed arrows did hurt a great number of our men,
so that they were enforced to retire to the ships : in which
conflict, they recovered but a few Negroes. Of these our men,
which were hurt with their envenomed arrows, there died to
the number of seven or eight, in a very strange manner, with
their mouths shut ; so that we were forced to put sticks and
other things into their mouths, to keep them open.

M‘ ?hiIs83.] T H EN leaves for the West Indies. 175

So afterwards passing the time upon the coast of Guinea
until the 12th of January [1568], we obtained by that time,
the number of 150 Negroes.

And being ready to depart from the sea coast, there was a
Negro sent as an ambassador to our General, from a king
[chief] of the Negroes (which was oppressed with other kings,
his bordering neighbours) desiring our General to grant him
succour and aid against those his enemies ; which our General
granted unto, and went himself in person aland, with the
number of 200 of our men or thereabouts : and the said King,
which had requested our aid, did join his force with ours, so
that thereby our General assaulted and set fire upon a town
of the said king his enemy, in which there was, at the least,
the number of 8,000 or 10,000 Negroes. They perceiving that
they were not able to make any resistance, sought by flight
to save themselves ; in which their flight, there were taken
prisoners to the number of 800 or goo, which our General
ought to have had for his share : howbeit the Negro king
which requested our aid, falsifying his word and promise,
secretly, in the night, conveyed himself away, with as many
prisoners as he had in his custody.

But our General, notwithstanding, finding himself to have
now very near the number of 500 Negroes, thought it best,
without longer abode, to depart with them and such mer¬
chandise as he had, from the coast of Africa towards the
West Indies : and therefore commanded, with all diligence, to
take in fresh water and fuel ; and so with speed to prepare to
depart.

Howbeit before we departed from thence,* in a storm that
we had, we lost one of our ships, namely, the William and
John : of which ship and her people, we heard no tidings
during the time of our voyage.

* This is wrong. The William and John was separated from the rest
of the English fleet in the storm in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 15th
August, 1568 ; and reached the coast of Ireland in February, 1569.

176 The English get as far as Cartagena. [M,?hi"5i£

THE SECOND CHAPTER.

Wherein is shewed the day and time of our departure from the
coast of Africa , with the day and time of our arrival in the West
Indies. Also of our trade and traffic there. And also of the
great cruelty that the Spaniards used towards us, by the Viceroy
his direction and appointment ; falsifying his faith and promise
given , and seeking to have entrapped us.

Ll things being made in a readiness, at our General
his appointment, upon the 3rd day of February, 1568,
we departed from the coast of Africa ; having the
weather somewhat tempestuous, which made our
passage the more hard.

So sailing for the space of forty-five days, upon the 27th
of March, 1568, we came in sight of an island called Dominica,
upon the coast of America, in the West Indies, situated in
140 [N.] Lat. and 2220 of Longitude.

From thence, our General coasted from place to place, ever
making traffic with the Spaniards and Indians, as he might :
which was somewhat hardly obtained ; for that the King [of
Spain] had straightly charged all his Governors in those parts
not to trade with any.

Yet, notwithstanding, during the months of April and May,
our General had reasonable trade and traffic, and courteous
entertainment in sundry places, as at Margarita, Curapao,
and elsewhere, till we came to Cape de la Vela, and Rio de la
Hacha a place from whence all the pearls do come. The
Governor there, would not, by any means, permit us to have
any trade or traffic, nor yet suffer us to take in fresh water.
By means whereof, our General, for the avoiding of famine
and thirst, about the beginning of June, was enforced to land
200 of our men ; and so, by main force and strength, to
obtain that which, by no fair means, he could procure : and
so recovering [ capturing ] the town, with the loss of two of our
men, there was a secret and peaceable trade admitted, and
the Spaniards came in by night, and bought of our Negroes, to
the number of 200 and upwards, and of our other merchan¬
dise also.

From thence, we departed for Cartagena, where the

M' ?hii583’.] Va.lue of ships at San Juan de Ulua. 177

Governor was so straight, that we could not obtain any traffic
there; and so, for that our trade was near[ly] finished, our
General thought it best to depart from thence, the rather for
the avoiding of certain dangerous storms called the Huricanos
[hurricanes], which are accustomed to begin there about that
time of the year.

So, the 24th of July, 1568, we departed from hence, direct¬
ing our course North ; leaving the island of Cuba upon our
right hand, to the eastward of us.

And so sailing towards Florida, upon the 12th of August,
an extreme tempest arose, which [enjdured for the space of
eight days ; in which our ships were most dangerously tossed
and beaten hither and thither, so that we were in continual
fear to be drowned, by reason of the shallowness of the coast;
and in the end, we were constrained to flee for succour to the
port of San Juan de Ulua, or Vera Cruz, situated in 190
N. Lat. and 2790 Long., which is the port that serveth for
the city of Mexico.

In our seeking to recover this port, our General met, by
the way, three small ships, that carried passengers ; which
he took with him : and so, the 16th of September, 1568, we
entered the said port of San Juan de Ulua.

The Spaniards there, supposing us to have been the King
of Spain’s Fleet, the Chief Officers of the country thereabouts
came presently [at once] aboard our General ; where perceiving
themselves to have made an unwise adventure, they were in
great fear to have been taken and stayed : howbeit our
General did use them all very courteously. In the said port,
there were twelve ships, which, by report, had in them in
treasure, to the value of £ 200,000 [—nearly two millions
sterling now] ; all which being in our General his power, and
at his devotion, he did freely set at liberty ; as also the pas¬
sengers which he had before stayed, not taking from any of
them all, the value of one groat. Only he stayed two men of
credit and account ; the one named Don Lorenzo de Alva,
and the other Don Pedro de Revera.

And presently our General sent to the Viceroy, to Mexico
(which was threescore leagues off) certifying him of our
arrival there, by force of weather; desiring that “Forasmuch
as our Queen his Sovereign, was the King of Spain his loving
Sister and Friend ; that therefore he would, considering our
1. M 4

178 A Fleet of Spain worth 4^ Millions. [m-

necessities and wants, furnish us with victuals for our Navy;
and quietly to suffer us to repair and amend our ships. And
furthermore, that at the arrival of the Spanish Fleet, which
was there daily expected and looked for, to the end that there
might no quarrel arise between them and our General and
his company, for the breach of amity ; he humbly requested
of his Excellency that there might, in this behalf, some
special order be taken.” This message was sent away the
16th of September, 1568 ; it being the very day of our arrival
there.

The next morning, being the 17th of the same month, we
descried thirteen Sail of great ships ; and after that our
General understood that it was the King of Spain’s Fleet,
then looked for ; he presently sent to advertise the General
thereof, of our being in the said port, and giving him further
to understand that “ Before he should enter there into that
harbour, it was requisite that there should pass between
the two Generals, some orders and conditions to be observec
on either part, for the better contriving of peace between
them, and theirs,” according to our General’s request made
unto the Viceroy.

And, at that instant, our General was in a great perplexity
of mind, considering with himself that if he should keep out
that Fleet from entering into the port (a thing which he was
very well able to do, with the help of GOD), then should
that Fleet be in danger of present shipwreck and loss of all
their substance which amounted to the value of 1,800,000
crowns [=£540,000 =ahout four millions and a half pounds
sterling now] . Again he saw, that if he suffered them to enter,
he was assured that they would practise, by all manner of
means, to betray him and his : and, on the other side, the
haven was so little, that the other Fleet entering, the ships
were to ride one hard aboard of another.

Also he saw that if their Fleet should perish by his keeping
of them out (as of necessity they must, if he should have
done so) ; then stood he in great fear of the Queen our Sove¬
reign’s displeasure, in so weighty a cause. Therefore did he
choose the least evil ; which was, to suffer them to enter
under assurance : and so, to stand upon his guard, and to

M* ^g;] Articles between Hawkins & H enriquez. i 79

defend himself and his, from their treasons, which we were
well assured, they would practise.

So the messenger being returned from Don Martin de
Henriquez, the new Viceroy (who came in the same Fleet,
and had sufficient authority to command in all cases, both
by sea and land, in this Province of Mexico or New Spain)
did certify our General that “ For the better maintenance of
amity between the King of Spain and our Sovereign ; all our
requests should be both favourably granted, and faithfully
performed : ” signifying further that “ He heard and under¬
stood of the honest and friendly dealing of our General
towards the King of Spain’s subjects in all places where he
had been, as also in the said port.”

So that, to be brief, our requests were articled, and set down
in writing.

The first was that we might have victuals for our money ,
and license to sell as much wares as might suffice to furnish
our wants.

The second, that we might be suffered peaceably to repair
our ships.

The third, that the Island might be in our possession
during the time of our abode there.

In which Island, our General, for the better safety of
him and his, had already planted and placed certain
ordnance ; which were eleven pieces of brass. Therefore
he required that the same might so continue ; and that no
Spaniard should come to land in the said Island , having or
wearing any kind of weapon about him.

The fourth, and last, that for the better and more sure
performance and maintenance of peace , and of all the condi¬
tions; there might ten gentlemen of credit be delivered of either
part, as hostages.

These conditions were concluded and agreed upon in
writing by the Viceroy, signed with his hand, and sealed
with his seal : and ten hostages, upon either part, were
received.

And further it was concluded that the two Generals
should meet ; and give faith, each to the other, for the per¬
formance of the promises.

All which being done, the same was proclaimed by the

180 The Spaniards prepare their treachery, [m-

sound of a trumpet ; and commandment was given that none,
of either part, should violate or break the peace upon pain of
death.

Thus, at the end of three days, all was concluded ; and the
Fleet entered the port [the 20 th] ; the ships saluting one
another, as the manner of the sea doth require.

The morrow after, being Tuesday [the 21st], we laboured on
all sides, in placing the English ships by themselves, and the
Spanish ships by themselves : the Captains and inferior
persons, of either part, offering and shewing great courtesy
one to another ; and promising great amity on all sides.
Howbeit, as the sequel shewed, the Spaniards meant nothing
less upon their parts. For the Viceroy and Governor there¬
abouts, had secretly assembled at land, to the number of
1,000 chosen and well appointed men : meaning the next
Thursday, being the 23rd of September, at dinner time
[10 a.m.], to assault us, and set upon us, at all sides.

But before I go any further, I think it not amiss, briefly to
describe the manner of the Island, as it then was; and the
force and strength that it is now of. For the Spaniards,
since the time of our General’s being there, for the better
fortifying of the same place, have built a fair Castle and
Bulwark very well fortified, upon the same Island.

This port was then, at our being there, a little island of
stones, not past three feet above water in the highest
place ; and not past a bow shot over, any way, at the most ;
and it standeth from the mainland, two bow shots or more.
And there is not in all this coast, any other place for ships
safely to arrive at. Also the north winds in this coast are of
great violence and force ; and unless the ships be safely
moored in, with their anchors fastened in this Island ; there
is no remedy but present destruction and shipwreck.

All this our General wisely foreseeing, did provide that he
should have the said Island in his custody; or else the
Spaniards might, at their pleasure, have cut our cables ; and
so, with the first north wind that blew, we had had our pass¬
port, for our ships had gone ashore.

But to return to the matter.

The time approaching that their treason must be put in

M' ?hils83.] AND THEN suddenly discover IT. 1 8 1

practice, the same Thursday morning, some appearance
thereof began to shew itself ; as shifting of weapons from
ship to ship, and planting and bending their ordnance against
our men that warded upon the land, with great repair of
people : which apparent shews of breach of the Viceroy’s
faith, caused our General to send one to the Viceroy, to
inquire of him, “ What was meant thereby? ” who presently
sent and gave order that the ordnance aforesaid, and other
things of suspicion should be removed : returning answer to
our General, “ On the faith of a Viceroy ! that he would be
our defence and safety from all villainous treachery.” This
was upon Thursday, in the morning.

Our General not being therewith satisfied, seeing they had
secretly conveyed a great number of men aboard a great Hulk
or ship of theirs, of goo tons ; which ship rode hard by the
Minion : he sent again to the Viceroy, Robert Barret, the
Master of the Jesus, a man that could speak the Spanish
tongue very well ; and required that “ those men might be
unshipped again, which were in that great Hulk.”

The Viceroy (then perceiving that their treason was
thoroughly espied, stayed our Master) sounded the trumpet,
and gave order that his people should, upon all sides, charge
upon our men which warded the shore, and elsewhere : which
struck such a maze and sudden fear among us, that many
gave place, and sought to recover our ships for the safety
of themselves.

The Spaniards, which secretly were hid in ambush at land,
were quickly conveyed over to the Island, in their longboats ;
and so coming to the Island, they slew all our men they could
meet with, without any mercy.

The Minion, which had somewhat before prepared herself
to avoid the danger, hauled away, and abode the first brunt
of the 300 men that were in the great Hulk. Then they
sought to board the Jesus, where was a cruel fight, and many
of our men slain : but yet our men defended themselves, and
kept them out.

So the Jesus also got loose, and joining with the Minion, the
fight waxed hot on all sides : but they having won and got
our ordnance on shore, did greatly annoy us. In this fight,
there were two great ships of the Spaniards sunk, and one
burnt. So that with their ships, they were not able to harm

1 82 Hanging prisoners of war on posts.

us ; but from the shore, they beat us cruelly with our own
ordnance, in such sort, that the Jesus was very sore spoiled.

Suddenly, the Spaniards having fired two great ships of
their own ; they came directly against us, which bred in our
men a marvellous fear.

Howbeit, the Minion , which had made her sails ready,
shifted for herself (without the consent of the General, Captain,
or Master) ; so that very hardly our General could be received
into the Minion. The most of our men that were in the
Jesus shifted for themselves, and followed the Minion in the
boat ; and those which that small boat was not able to
receive, were most cruelly slain by the Spaniards.

Of our ships, none escaped saving the Minion and the
Judith ; and all such of our men as were not in them were
enforced to abide the tyrannous cruelty of the Spaniards.

For it is a certain truth, that when they had taken certain
of our men ashore ; they took them and hung them up by the
arms upon high posts, until the blood burst out at their
fingers’ ends. Of which men so used, there is one Copstowe,
and certain others, yet alive : who, through the merciful
providence of the Almighty, have long since [i.e., before
1:583] arrived here at home in England ; carrying still about
with them (and shall, to their graves), the marks and tokens
of those their inhuman, and more than barbarous, cruel
dealing.

THE THIRD CHAPTER .

Wherein is shewed how that, after we were escaped from the
Spaniards , we were like to perish with famine at the sea ; and how ,
our General , for the avoiding thereof , was constrained to put half
of his men on land. And what miseries we , after that , sustained
among the savage people ; and how we fell again into the hands of
the Spaniards .

FTERthat, the Viceroy, Don Martin de Hbnriquez,
had thus, contrary to his faith and promise, most
cruelly dealt with our General, Master Hawkins, at
San Juan de Ulua, where most of his men were, by
the Spaniards, slain and drowned ; and all his ships sunk and

M- ?hiisg:] The last extremities of famine. 183

burnt, saving the Minion and the Judith (which was a small
bark of 50 tons, wherein was then Captain, Master Francis
Drake aforesaid) : the same night, the said bark lost us.

We were in great necessity, and enforced to remove with
the Minion two bow shots from the Spanish Fleet ; where we
anchored all that night.

And the next morning [24 th September ], we weighed anchor,
and recovered an island, a mile from the Spaniards, where a
storm took us with a North wind; in which, we were greatly
distressed, having but two cables and two anchors left. For
in the conflict before, we had lost three cables and two
anchors.

The morrow after [25 th September] 7 the storm being ceased,
and the weather fair ; we weighed and set sail : being many
[i.e.t between 200 and 300] men in number, and but small
store of victuals to suffice us for any long time : by means
whereof we were in despair and fear, that we should perish
through famine, so that some were in mind to yield themselves
to the mercy of the Spaniards, others to the savages or infidels.

And wandering thus certain days in these unknown seas,
hunger constrained us to eat hides, cats and dogs, mice, rats,
parrots, and monkeys : to be short, our hunger was so great,
that we thought it savoury and sweet, whatever we could get
to eat.

And on [Friday] the 8th of October, we came to land again
in the bottom [or rather on the West side] of the Bay of
Mexico ; where we hoped to have found some inhabitants,
that we might have had some relief of victuals, and a place
where to repair our ship, which was so greatly bruised that
we were scarce able, with our weary arms, to keep forth the
water.

Being thus oppressed with famine on the one side, and
danger of drowning on the other ; not knowing where to find
relief, we began to be in wonderful despair, and we were of
many minds. Amongst whom there were a great many that
did desire our General to set them on land ; making their
choice rather to submit themselves to the mercy of the
savages or infidels than longer to hazard themselves at sea :
where they very well saw that, if they should all remain
together, if they perished not by drowning, yet hunger would
enforce them, in the end, to eat one another. To which re-

184 1 14 MEN PUT A S H O R E, O C T. 8, I 568. [M>

quest, our General did very willingly agree, considering with
himself that it was necessary for him to lessen his number ;
both for the safety of himself and the rest.

And thereupon being resolved to set half his people on
shore, that he had then left alive ; it was a world to see how
suddenly men’s minds were altered ! for they which, a little
before, desired to be set on land, were now of another mind,
and requested rather to stay.

By means whereof, our General was enforced, for the more
contentation of all men’s minds, and to take away all occa¬
sions of offence, to take this order.

First, he made choice of such persons of service and
account as were needful to stay : and that being done,
of those who were willing to go, he appointed such as he
thought might best be spared.

And presently appointed that, by the boat, they should
set on shore : our General promising us, that, the next year,
he would either come himself, or else send to fetch us home.

Here again, it would have caused any stony heart to have
relented, to have heard the pitiful moan that many did make ;
and how loath they were to depart. The weather was then
somewhat stormy and tempestuous, and therefore we were
to pass with great danger [i.e., to the shore ] ; yet notwithstand¬
ing there was no remedy but we that were appointed to go
away, must of necessity do so.

Howbeit, those that went in the first boat were safely set
ashore ; but of them which went in the second boat, of which
number I myself was one, the seas wrought so high that we
could not attain to the shore : and therefore we were con¬
strained through the cruel dealing of John Hampton, Captain
of the Minion , John Sanders, Boatswain of the Jesus, and
Thomas Pollard, his [i.e., the Boatswain's ] Mate, to leap out of
the boat into the main sea, having more than a mile to the
shore ; and so to shift for ourselves, and either to sink or
swim. And of those that were so, as it were, thrown out,
and compelled to leap into the sea ; there were two drowned,
which were of Captain Bland’s [a Frenchman of Rochelle , see
p. 222] men.

In the evening of the same day, it being Friday, the 8th of

M- Attacked and stripped by Chichemics. 185

October, 1568, when we were all come ashore, we found fresh
water ; whereof some of our men drank so much that they
had almost cast themselves away, for we could scarce get life
in them for the space of two or three hours after. Some
others were so cruelly swollen, what with the drinking in of
the salt water, and what with the eating of the fruit, which
is called Capulc [? chestnut], having a stone in it much like an
almond, which we found on land, they were all in very ill
case. So that we were, in a manner, all of us, both feeble,
faint, and weak.

The next morning, it being Saturday, the gth of October,
we thought it best to travel along by the sea coast, to seek
out some place of habitation ; whether they were Christians
or savages, we were indifferent, so that we might have where¬
withal to sustain our hungry bodies.

So departing from a hill, where we had rested all night,
not having any dry thread about us : for those that were not
wet, being thrown into the sea, were thoroughly wet with
rain ; for it rained cruelly all the night.

As we went from the hill, and were come into the plain,
we were greatly troubled to pass, for the grass and woods
[shrubs] that grew there higher than any man. On the left
hand, we had the sea ; and upon the right hand, great woods :
so that, of necessity, we must needs pass, on our way west¬
ward, through those marshes.

Going thus, suddenly, we were assaulted by the Indians, a
warlike kind of people ; which are, in a manner as cannibals,
although they do not feed upon men’s flesh as cannibals do.
These people are called Chichemics; and they use to wear
their hair long, even down to their knees. They do also
colour their faces green, yellow, red, and blue ; which maketh
them to seem very ugly and terrible to behold.

These people do keep wars against the Spaniards ; of whom
they have been oftentimes very cruelly handled : for with the
Spaniards there is no mercy.

They perceiving us, at our first coming on land, supposed
us to have been their enemies, the bordering Spaniards ; and
having by their forerunners [scouts] described what number
we were, and how feeble and weak, without armour or weapon,
they suddenly (according to their accustomed manner when
they encounter with any people in warlike sort) raised a

1 86 Anthony Goddard’s party go westward. [m-

terrible and huge cry ; and so came running fiercely upon us,
shooting off their arrows as thick as hail.

Unto whose mercy, we were constrained to yield, not having
amongst us any kind of armour : nor yet weapon, saving one
caliver and two old rusty swords, whereby to make any re¬
sistance or to save ourselves. Which when they perceived
that we sought not any other than favour and mercy at their
hands, and that we are not their enemies, the Spaniards ;
they had compassion on us, and came and caused us all to
sit down. And when they had a while surveyed and taken a
perfect view of us, they came to all such as had any coloured
clothes amongst us, and those they did strip stark naked, and
took their clothes away with them ; but they that were
apparelled in black, they did not meddle withal. And so
went their ways, and left us, without doing us any further
hurt : only in the first brunt, they killed eight of our men.

At their departure, they perceiving in what weak case we
were, pointed us with their hands, which way we should
go to come to a town of the Spaniards (which, as we after¬
wards perceived, was not past ten leagues from thence),
using these words, Tampeco! tampeco Christiano ! tampeco
Christiano ! which is as much, we think, as to say in English,
“ Go that way, and you shall find the Christians ! ” [or
rather the name of the town of Tampico , at the mouth of the
Panuco]. The weapons that they use, are no others but bows
and arrows ; and their aim is so good that they very seldom
miss to hit anything that they shoot at.

Shortly after they had left us stript, as aforesaid, we thought
it best to divide ourselves into two companies. So being
separated, half of us went under the leading of Anthony
Goddard (who is a man alive, and dwelleth at this instant
[? 1 5^3] in the town of Plymouth), whom before, we chose
to be Captain over us all : and those which went under his
leading (of which number, I, Miles Phillips, was one),
travelled westward, that way which the Indians with their
hands had before pointed us to go.

The other half went, under the leading of one John Hooper,
whom they did choose for their Captain (and with the company
that went with him, David INGRAM [pp. 161-72] was one), and
they took their way, and travelled northward. And shortly

M- ?hi!s83.'] John Hooper’s party start northward. 187

after, within the space of two days, they were again en¬
countered with the savage people : and their Captain, Hooper,
and two more of their company were slain.

Then, again, they divided themselves. Some held on their
way still northward : and some others, knowing that we were
gone westward, sought to meet with us again ; as, in truth,
there was about the number of 25 or 26 of them that met
with us, in the space of four days again.

Then we began to reckon among ourselves, how many we
were that were set on shore : and we found the number to be
114 : whereof two were drowned in the sea, and eight slain at
the first encounter ; so that there remained 104, of which 25
went westward with us, and 52 to the north with Hooper and
Ingram. And as Ingram since hath often told me, there
were not past three of their company slain ; and there were
but 26 of them that came again to us. So that of the company
that went northward, there is yet lacking, and not certainly
heard of, to the number of 23 men : and verily I do think that
there are some of them yet alive, and married in the said
country, at Sibola ; as hereafter I purpose, GOD willing ! to
discourse of more particularly, with the reason and causes
that make me so to think of them, that were [thus] lacking;
which were David Ingram, Twide, Browne [pp. 163, 170,
171], and sundry others whose names we could not remember.

Being thus met again together, we travelled on still west¬
ward, sometimes through such thick woods that we were en¬
forced to break away, with cudgels, the brambles and bushes
from tearing our naked bodies. Some other times, we should
travel through the plains in such high grass that we could
scarce see one another. And as we passed, in some places,
we should have of our men slain, and fall down suddenly ;
being stricken by the Indians, which stood behind trees and
bushes, in secret places, and so killed our men as they went
by : for we went scatteringly in seeking of fruits to relieve
ourselves.

We were also, oftentimes, greatly annoyed with a kind of
fly, which in the Indian tongue is called, Tequani, and the
Spaniards call them Musketas [mosquitos].

There are also in the said country, a number of other flies,
but none so noisome as these tequanies be. You shall hardly

1 88 Great joy at hearing a cock crow. [M*

see them, they be so small ; for they are scarce so big as a
gnat. They will suck one’s blood marvellously, and if you
kill them, while they are sucking, they are so venomous that
the place will swell extremely even as one that is stung with
a wasp or bee : but if you let them suck their fill and to go
away of themselves, they do you no other hurt, but leave
behind them a red spot somewhat bigger than a flea-biting.
At first, we were terribly troubled with these kind of flies,
not knowing their qualities : and resistance we could make
none against them, being naked. As for cold, we feared not
any : the country there is always so warm.

And as we travelled thus, for the space of ten or twelve
days, our Captain did oftentimes cause certain to go to the
tops of high trees to see if they could descry any town or
place of inhabitants ; but they could not perceive any.

Using often the same order, to climb up into high trees, at
the length, they descried a great river that fell from the north¬
west into the main sea ; and presently after, we heard a
harquebuss shot off, which did greatly encourage us, for
thereby we knew that we were near to some Christians, and
did therefore hope shortly to find some succour and comfort.

Within the space of one hour after, as we travelled, we
heard a cock crow : which was no small joy to us.

So we came to the north side of the river of Panuco ; where
the Spaniards have certain Salinas [salt pans] : at which
place it was that the harquebuss was shot off, which we
heard before. To which place, we went not directly ; but
missing thereof, we left it about a bow shot upon our left
hand.

Of this river, we drank very greedily ; for we had not met
with any water, in six days before.

As we were here by the river, resting ourselves, and longing
to come to the place where the cock did crow, and where the
harquebuss was shot off; we perceived many Spaniards upon
the other side of the river, riding up and down on horseback:
and they perceiving us, did suppose that we had been of the
Indians their bordering enemies, the Chichemics. The river
was not past half a bow shot over.

Presently, one of the Spaniards took an Indian boat called
a canoe ; and so came over, being rowed by two Indians.
Having taken the view of us, he did presently row over back

M* :?hiis83'.] Taken by the Spaniards of Tampico. 189

again to the Spaniards : who, without any delay, made out
about the number of twenty horsemen ; and embarking them¬
selves in the canoes, they led their horses by the reins, swim¬
ming over after them. Being come over, to that side of the
river where we were, they saddled their horses ; and being-
mounted upon them, with their lances charged, they came
very fiercely, running at us.

Our Captain, Anthony Goddard, seeing them come in
that order, did persuade us to submit and yield ourselves
unto them ; for being naked as we were at this time, without
weapon, we could not make any resistance : whose bidding
we obeyed.

Upon the yielding of ourselves, they perceived us to be
Christians ; and did call for more canoes, and carried us over
by four and four in a boat. Being come on the other side, they
understanding by our Captain how long we had been without
meat [ food ], imparted [divided] between two and two, a loaf of
bread made of that country wheat which the Spaniards call
Maize, of the bigness of one of our halfpenny loaves ; which
bread is named in the Indian tongue, Clashacally.

This bread was very sweet and pleasant unto us, for we
had not eaten anything in a long time before : and what is it
that hunger doth not make to have a savoury and a delicate
taste ?

Having thus imparted the bread amongst us, those which
were men, they sent afore to the town ; having also many
Indians, inhabitants of that place, to guard them. They
which were young, as boys ; and some such also as were
feeble, they took up upon their horses behind them. And so
carried us to the town, where they dwelt ; which was very
near a mile distant from the place where we came over.

This town [Tampico] is well situated, and well replenished
with all kinds of fruits, as oranges, lemons, pomegranates,
apricots, and peaches, and sundry others : and is inhabited
with a number of tame Indians or Mexicans ; and had in it,
also, at that time, about the number of 200 Spaniards (men,
women, and children), besides Negroes.

Of the Salinas , which lie upon the west side of the river,
more than a mile distant from thence, they make a great
profit. For salt is an excellent good merchandise there. The
Indians do buy much thereof, and carry it up into the country

190 Robbed again, this time by Spaniards. [M’ ?hi^g;

and there sell it to their own people, doubling the price.
Also much of the salt made in this place is transported from
thence, by sea, to sundry other places, as Cuba, San Juan
de Ulua, and the other ports of Tamiago and Tamachos,
which are two barred havens [i.e., with sand bars] west-and-by-
south, above threescore leagues, from San Juan de Ulua.

When we were all come to the town, the Governor there,
shewed himself very severe unto us, and threatened to hang
us all. Then he demanded, “ What money we had ? ” which,
in truth, was very little : for the Indians, which we first
withal, had, in a manner, taken all from us ; and of that
which was left, the Spaniards, which brought us over, took away
a good part also. Howbeit, the Governor here had from
Anthony Goddard a chain of gold, which was given unto
him at Cartagena, by the Governor there ; and from others,
he had some small store of money. So that we accounted
that among us all, he had the number of 500 pesos [i.e., pesos
of silver , at 6s. 8d. each=£i 35 or about £1,000 now], besides
the chain of gold.

Having thus satisfied himself, when he had taken all that
we had ; he caused us to be put into a little house, much like
a hogsty, where we were almost smothered [suffocated].

Before we were thus shut up in that little cot, they gave
us some of the country wheat, called Maize, sodden : which
they feed their hogs withal. But many of our men, which had
been hurt by the Indians at our first coming on land, whose
wounds were very sore and grievous, desired to have the help
of their Surgeons to cure their wounds. The Governor, and
most of them, all answered that “ We should have none other
surgeon but the hangman ; which should sufficiently heal us
of all our griefs.”

Thus reviling us, and calling us, “ English dogs ! ” and
“ Lutheran heretics ! ” we remained the space of three days
in this miserable state, not knowing what should become of
us ; waiting every hour to be bereaved of our lives.

m« piuihps;] March in a gang up to Mexico.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER.

Wherein is shewed how we were used in Panuco [Tampico], and
in what fear of death we were there . And how we were carried to
Mexico , to the Viceroy ; and of our imprisonment there, and at
Tescuco , with the courtesies and cruelties we received during that
time. And how , in the end , we were , by Proclamation , given as
slaves to sundry Spanish gentlemen .

Pon the fourth day, after our coming thither, and
there remaining in a perplexity ; looking every hour
when we should suffer death : there came a great
number of Indians and Spaniards, weaponed, to fetch
us out of the house. And amongst them, we espied one that
brought a great many of new halters : at the sight whereof,
we were greatly amazed, and made no other account but that
we should presently have suffered death ; and so, crying and
calling on GOD for mercy and forgiveness of our sins, we
prepared ourselves, making us ready to die.

Yet in the end, as the sequel shewed, their meaning was
not so. For when we were come out of the house, with those
halters, they bound our arms behind us ; and so coupling us
two and two together, they commanded us to march on through
the town, and so alongst the country, from place to place, to-
wards the city of Mexico ; which is distant from Panuco [ Tam¬
pico ], west-and-by-south, the space of threescore leagues:
having only but two Spaniards to conduct us; they being ac¬
companied with a great number of Indians, warding, on each
side, with bows and arrows, lest we should escape from them.

Travelling in this order, upon the second day, at night, we
came unto a town, which the Indians call Nohele ; and the
Spaniards call it Santa Maria. In which town there is a
House of White Friars ; which did very courteously use us,
and gave us hot meat, as mutton and broth ; and garments
also to cover ourselves withal, made of white bayes [baize].
We fed very greedily of the meat, and of the Indian fruit
called Nochole , which fruit is long and small, much like in
fashion to a little cucumber. Our greedy feeding caused us
to fall sick of hot burning agues.

And here at this place, one Thomas Baker, one of our

192 Difference between their two Officers.[m

men, died of a hurt ; for had been before shot in the throat
with an arrow, at the first encounter.

The next morrow, about ten of the clock, we departed from
thence, bound two and two together, and guarded as before,.
And so travelled on our way towards Mexico, till we came to
a town within forty leagues of Mexico, named Mesticlan ;
where is a House of Black Friars ; and in this town there are
about the number of 300 Spaniards, men, women, and
children. The Friars sent us meat from the House ready
dressed ; and the Friars, and men and women, used us very
courteously, and gave us some shirts and other such things
as we lacked. Here our men were very sick of their agues ;
and with the eating of another fruit, called in the Indian
tongue, Guiaccos.

The next morning, we departed from thence, with our two
Spaniards, and Indian guard ; as aforesaid.

Of these two Spaniards, the one was an aged man, who,
all the way, did very courteously intreat us ; and would care¬
fully go before to provide for us, both meat and things
necessary, to the uttermost of his power. The other was a
young man, who, all the way, travelled with us, and never
departed from us ; who was a very cruel caitiff. He carried
a javelin in his hand ; and sometimes when our men, with
very feebleness and faintness, were not able to go as fast as he
required them ; he would take his javelin in both his hands,
and strike them with the same, between the neck and the
shoulders so violently that he would strike them down : then
would he cry, and say, Marches ! marches Ingleses perros !
Luther anos ; enemicos de DIOS ! which is as much as to say in
English, “ March ! march on, you English dogs ! Lutherans!
enemies to GOD ! ”

And the next day, we came to a town called Pachuca.
There are two places of that name, as this Town of Pachuca ;
and the Mines of Pachuca, which are mines of silver, and are
about six leagues distant from this town of Pachuca, towards
the north-west.

Here, at this town, the good old man, our governor,
suffered us to stay two days and two nights, having com¬
passion of our sick and weak men : full sore against the mind
of the young man, his companion.

From thence, we took our journey, and travelled four or

m. PMHps;] at length they approach Mexico. 193

five days, by little villages, and Stantias which are farms or
dairy houses of the Spaniards ; and ever, as we had need, the
good old man would still provide us sufficiently of meats, fruits,
and water to sustain us.

At the end of which five days, we came to a town within
five leagues of Mexico, which is called Quoglilican ; where we
also stayed one whole day and two nights ; where was a fair
House of Grey Friars ; howbeit, we saw none of them.

Here we were told by the Spaniards in the town, that we
were not past fifteen English miles from thence to Mexico ;
whereof we were all very joyful and glad : hoping that when
we came thither, we should either be relieved and set free out
of bonds, or else be quickly despatched out of our lives. For
seeing ourselves thus carried bound from place to place, al¬
though some used us courteously, yet could we never joy nor
be merry till we might perceive ourselves set free from that
bondage, either by death or otherwise.

The next morning, we departed from thence, on our journey
towards Mexico ; and so travelled till we came within two
leagues of it. Where there was built by the Spaniards a very
fair church, called Our Lady’s Church ; in which, there is an
image of Our Lady, of silver and gilt, being as high and as large
as a tall woman \cf. pp. 275, 276] ; in which church, and before
this image, there are as many lamps of silver, as there be
days in the year ; which, upon high days, are all lighted.

Whensoever any Spaniards pass by this church, although
they be on horseback, they will alight, and come into the
church, and kneel before this image, and pray to our Lady to
defend them from all evil ; so that, whether he be horseman
or footman, he will not pass by, but first go into the church,
and pray as aforesaid ; which if they do not, they think and
believe that they shall never prosper. Which image, they
call in the Spanish tongue, Nostra Senora de Guadaloupe.

At this place, there are certain cold baths, which arise,
springing up as though the water did seethe. The water
whereof is somewhat brackish in taste, but very good for any
that have any sore or wound, to wash themselves therewith.
For, as they say, it healeth many. And every year, upon our
Lady’s Day [25^ March], the people use to repair thither to
offer, and to pray in the church before the image : and they say
that Our Lady of Guadaloupe doth work a number of miracles.
1. N 4

194 Are very well treated by the citizens. [m-

About this church, there is not any town inhabited by
Spaniards ; but certain Indians do dwell there, in houses of
their own country building.

Here, we were met with a great number of Spaniards on
horseback, which came from Mexico to see us, both gentle¬
men and men of occupations ; and they came as people to
see a wonder. We were still called upon to march on ; and
so, about four of the clock in the afternoon of the said day,
we entered into the city of Mexico, by the way or street
called La Calla de Santa Catharina : and we stayed not in
any place till we came to the House or Palace of the Viceroy,
Don Martin de Henriquez, which standeth in the midst
of the city, hard by the Market Place, called La Plaza dell
Marquess.

We had not stayed any long time at the place, but there
was brought us by the Spaniards from the Market Place,
great store of meat sufficient to have satisfied five times so
many as we were. Some also gave us hats, and some gave
us money. In which place, we stayed for the space of two
hours.

From thence, we were conveyed by water in large canoes
to an Hospital, where certain of our men were lodged, which
were taken before, at the fight at San Juan de Ulua. We
should have gone to Our Lady’s Hospital ; but there were
there also so many of our men taken before, at that fight,
that there was no room for us.

After our coming thither, many of the company that came
with me from Panuco died, within the space of fourteen days.
Soon after which time, we were taken forth from that place,
and put together in Our Lady’s Hospital ; in which place,
we were courteously used, and oftentimes visited by virtuous
gentlemen and gentlewomen of the city : who brought us
divers things to comfort us withal, as succets [sweetmeats],
marmalades, and such other things ; and would also many
times give us many things, and that very liberally.

In which Hospital, we remained for the space of six months
[i.e., till the summer of 1569], until we were all whole and
sound of body.

Then we were appointed by the Viceroy, to be carried

M* ?hiis83.] They break out of Tescuco prison. 195

into the town of Tescuco, which is distant from Mexico,
south-west, eight leagues. In which town, there are certain
Houses of Correction and Punishment, for ill people called
Obraches ; like to Bridewell here in London. Into which
place, divers Indians were sold for slaves ; some for ten years
and some for twelve.

It was no small grief unto us, when we understood that we
should be carried thither ; and to be used as slaves. We had
rather be put to death.

Howbeit, there was no remedy ; but we were carried to the
Prison of Tescuco : where we were not put to any labour;
but were very straitly kept, and almost famished. Yet, by
the good providence of our merciful GOD, we happened to
meet there, with one Robert Sweeting, who was the son of
an English man born of a Spanish woman [p. 199 ; and also
p . 267]. This man could speak very good English ; and
by his means we were helped very much with victuals from
the Indians, as muttons [sheep], hens, and bread. And if we
had not been so relieved, we had surely perished. And yet
all the provision that we had got that way was but slender.
And continuing thus straitly kept in prison there, for the
space of two months ; at the length, we agreed amongst our¬
selves to break forth of prison, come of it what would. For
we were minded rather to suffer death, than to live longer in
that miserable state.

And so having escaped out of prison, we knew not what
way to fly for the safety of ourselves. The night was dark,
and it rained terribly : and not having any guide, we went we
knew not whither.

In the morning, at the appearing of the day, we perceived
ourselves to be come hard to the city of Mexico ; which is 24
English miles from Tescuco.

The day being come, we were espied by the Spaniards, and
pursued, and taken : and brought before the Viceroy and
the Head Justices, who threatened to hang us, for breaking
the King’s prison.

Yet, in the end, they sent us into a garden belonging to
the Viceroy ; and coming thither, we found there our English
gentlemen, which were delivered as hostages when our

ig6 Are apportioned out as slaves! [m-

General was betrayed at San Juan de Ulua, as is aforesaid.
And with them also, we found Robert Barret, the Master
of the Jesus.

In which place, we remained, labouring and doing such
things as we were commanded, for the space of four months ;
having but two sheep a day allowed to suffice us all, being
very nearly a hundred men; and for bread, we had every man,
two loaves a day, of the quantity of one halfpenny loaf.

At the end of which four months [i.e., about January 1570],
they having removed our Gentlemen hostages and the
Master of the Jesus to a prison in the Viceroy’s own house
[/A I97’-S] ; he did cause it to be proclaimed, that what gentle¬
man Spaniard soever was willing, or would have any Eng¬
lishman to serve him, and be bound to keep him forthcoming,
to appear before the Justices within one month after notice
given ; that he should repair to the said garden, and there
take his choice : which Proclamation was no sooner made,
but the gentlemen came and repaired to the garden amain :
so that happy was he, that could soonest get one of us.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER.

Wherein is shewed in what good sort , and how wealthily we
lived with our Masters , until the coming of the Inquisition : when
again our sorrows began afresh . Of our imprisonment in the
Holy House ; and of the severe judgement and sentences given
against us} and with what rigour and cruelty the same were
executed.

He Gentlemen that took us for their servants or
slaves, did new apparel us throughout ; with whom
we abode, doing such service as they appointed us
unto, which was, for the most part, to attend upon
them at the table, and to be as their chamberlains [serving
men or valets ], and to wait upon them, when they went abroad,
which they greatly accounted of. For in that country, no
Spaniard will serve another; but they are, all of them,

m. philips;] Some Hostages & Barret are burnt. 197

attended and served by Indians, weekly; and by Negroes,
which be their slaves, during their life.

In this sort, we remained, and served in the said city of
Mexico and thereabouts, for the space of a year and somewhat
longer [? till Spring 0/1571].

Afterwards, many of us were appointed by our masters, to
go to sundry of their mines, where they had to do ; and to be
as Overseers of the Negroes and Indians that laboured there.

In which mines, many of us did profit and gain greatly.
For first we were allowed 300 pesos a man for a year; which
is £60 sterling [ —about £500 now]. And besides that, the
Indians and Negroes which wrought under our charge, upon
our well using and intreating of them, would, at times (as
upon Saturdays when they had left work) labour for us ; and
blow as much silver as should be worth unto us 3 marks or
thereabouts (every mark being worth 6J pesos of their money;
which 19J pesos is worth £4 10s. of our money).

Sundry weeks, we did gain so much by this means, besides
our wages, that many of us became very rich, and were
worth 3,000 or 4,000 pesos [“£600 or £8oo=about £5,000
or £7,000 now]. For we lived and gained thus much in those
mines, in some three or four years.

As concerning those gentlemen which were delivered as
hostages, and that were kept in prison in the Viceroy’s house ;
after that we [about January , 1570] were gone from out of the
garden to serve gentlemen as aforesaid ; they remained
prisoners in the said house, for the space of four months after
their coming thither.

At the end whereof [in the Summer of 1570], the Fleet being
ready to depart from San Juan de Ulua, to go for Spain ; the
said Gentlemen * were sent away into Spain, with the Fleet
[p. 198]. Where, as I have heard it credibly reported, many
of them died with the cruel handling of the Spaniards in
the Inquisition House ; as those which have been delivered
home after they had suffered the persecution of that House,
can more perfectly declare.

Robert Barret,* the Master of the Jesus, was also sent

* Note the murderous injustice of this. Neither the hostages, not
Barret had fought a stroke at San Juan de Ulua.

198 Holy Hellish House come to Mexico. [m¬

away, with the Fleet into Spain [/. 196 ; see also p. 225] ;
where, afterwards, he suffered persecution in the Inquisition;
and at the last was condemned to be burnt, and with him
three or four more of our men. Of whom, one was named
Gregory, and another John Browne, whom I knew ; for
they were of our General’s Musicians : but the names of the
rest that suffered with them, I know not.

Now after that six years were fully expired since our first
coming into the Indies, in which time, we had been imprisoned
and served in the said country, as is before truly declared : in
the year of our Lord 1574 [? 1573-4], the Inquisition began
to be established in the Indies ; very much against the minds
of many of the Spaniards themselves. For never until this
time, since their first conquering and planting in the Indies,
were they subject to that bloody and cruel Inquisition.

The Chief Inquisitor was named Don Pedro Moya de
Contreres, and Juan de Bouilla, his companion; and Juan
Sanchis, the Fiscal; and Pedro de la Rios, the Secretary.

They being come and settled, and placed in a very fair
house near unto the White Friars (considering with them¬
selves that they must make an entrance and beginning of
that their most detestable Inquisition here in Mexico, to the
terror of the whole country) thought it best to call us that
were Englishmen first in question : and so much the rather,
for that they had perfect knowledge and intelligence that
many of us were become very rich, as hath been already de¬
clared ; and therefore we were a very good booty and prey to
the Inquisitors. So that now again began our sorrows afresh.

For we were sent for, and sought out in all places of the
country; and Proclamation made, upon pain of losing of goods
and excommunication, that no man should hide or keep
secret any Englishman or any part of his goods.

By means whereof, we were all soon apprehended in all
places, and all our goods seized and taken for the Inquisitors’
use. And so, from all parts of the country, we were conveyed
and sent as prisoners to the city of Mexico ; and there com¬
mitted to prison, in sundry dark dungeons, where we could
not see but by candle light ; and were never past two together
in one place : so that we saw not one another, neither could
one of us tell what was become of another.

M. Phillips.] FIENDISH WAY OF GETTING UP A CASE. 1 99

Thus we remained close imprisoned for the space of a year
and a half, and others for some less time : for they came to
prison ever as they were apprehended.

During which time of our imprisonment, at the first begin¬
ning, we were often called before the Inquisitors alone ; and
there severely examined of our faith ; and commanded to say
the Pater nosier, the Ave Maria , and the Creed in Latin:
which, GOD knoweth ! a great number of us could not say
otherwise than in the English tongue. And having the said
Robert Sweeting, who was our friend at Tescuco always
present with them for an interpreter, he made report for us,
that in our own country speech, we could say them perfectly,
although not word for word as they were in the Latin.

Then did they proceed to demand of us, upon our oaths,
“ What we did believe of the Sacrament ? ” and “ Whether
there did remain any bread or wine, after the words of con¬
secration, Yea or No ? ” and whether we did not believe that
the Host of bread which the priest did hold up over his head,
and the wine that was in the chalice, was the very true and
perfect body and blood of our Saviour Christ, Yea or No ? ”

To which, if we answered not “Yea ! ” then there was no
way but death.

Then they would demand of us, “ What did we remember
of ourselves, what opinions we had held or been taught to
hold contrary to the same, whiles we were in England ? ”

So we, for the safety of our lives, were constrained to say
that, “ We never did believe, nor had been taught otherwise
than as before we had said.”

Then would they charge us that “ We did not tell them
the truth. That they knew to the contrary, and therefore we
should call ourselves to remembrance, and make them a better
answer at the next time, or else we should be racked, and
made to confess the truth whether we would or not !”

And so coming again before them, the next time, we were
still demanded of “ our belief whiles we were in England, and
how we had been taught ; ” and also what we thought, or did
know of such of our own company as they did name unto
us. So that we could never be free from such demands.

And, at other times, they would promise us that if we would
tell them truth, then should we have favour and be set at
liberty; although we very well knew their fair speeches

200 Preparing for a Holy Thursday tragedy. [?Phi”5£3s;

were but means to intrap us, to the hazard and loss of our
lives.

Howbeit, GOD so mercifully wrought for us, by a secret
means that we had, that we kept us still to our first answer ;
and would still say that “we had told the truth unto them ;
and knew no more by ourselves, nor any other of our fellows
than as we had declared ; and that for our sins and offences
in England, against GOD, and Our Lady, and any of His
blessed Saints ; we were right heartily sorry for the same,
and did cry GOD, mercy!” And besought the Inquisitors,
“ For GOD’s sake, considering that we came unto those
countries by force of weather, and against our wills ; and
that we had never, in all our lives, either spoken or done
anything contrary to their laws ; that therefore they would
have mercy upon us ! ” Yet all this would not serve.

About the space of three months before \i.e., in January ,
I575] f^ey proceeded to their severe judgement, we were all
racked [i.e., tortured on the rack] ; and some enforced to utter
against themselves, which afterwards cost them their lives.

And having thus got, from our own mouths, sufficient for
them to proceed in judgement against us ; they caused a large
scaffold to be made in the midst of the Market Place in Mexico,
right over against the Head Church : and fourteen or fifteen
days before the day of their judgement, with the sound of
trumpet and the noise of their attabalies (which are a kind of
drums) they did assemble the people in all parts of the city ;
before whom it was then solemnly proclaimed that “whoso¬
ever would, upon such a day, repair to the Market Place,
they should hear the sentence of the Holy Inquisition against
the English heretics, Lutherans ; and also see the same put
in execution.”

Which being done, and the time approaching of this cruel
judgement ; the night before, they came to the prison where
we were, with certain Officers of that Holy Hellish House,
bringing with them certain fools’ coats, which they had pre¬
pared for us, being called in their language, San Benitos ,
which coats were made of yellow cotton, and red crosses upon
them both before and behind.

They were so busied in putting on their coats about us,
and in bringing us out into a large yard, and placing and
[appointing us in what order we should go to the scaffold or

M»] A CRUEL JUDGEMENT ON 7 1 PRISONERS. 201

place of judgement upon the morrow, that they did not once
suffer us to sleep all that night long.

The next morning being come, there was given to every
one of us, for our breakfast, a cup of wine and a slice of bread
fried in honey ; and so about eight of the clock in the morn¬
ing, we set forth of the prison : every man alone, in his yel¬
low coat, and a rope about his neck, and a great green wax
candle in his hand unlighted ; having a Spaniard appointed,
to go upon either side of every one of us.

So marching in this order and manner towards the Scaf¬
fold in the Market Place, which was a bow shot distant or
thereabouts, we found a great assembly of people all the way,
and such a throng that certain of the Inquisitors’ Officers, on
horseback, were constrained to make way.

So coming to the Scaffold, we went up by a pair of stairs,
and found seats ready made, and prepared for us to sit down
on, every man in the order as he should be called to receive
his judgement.

We being thus set down as we were appointed : presently
the Inquisitors came up another pair of stairs ; and the Viceroy
and all the Chief Justices with them.

When they were set down under the Cloth of Estate, and
placed according to their degrees and calling; then came up
also a great number of Friars, White, Black, and Grey. They,
being about the number of 300 persons, were set in the places
appointed for them there.

There was there a solemn Oyez ! made ; and silence
commanded.

And then presently began their severe and cruel judge¬
ment.

The first man that was called, was one Roger, the
Chief Armourer of the Jesus : and he had judgement to
have 300 stripes on horseback; and, after, was condemned
to the galleys, as a slave, for ten years.

After him, were called John Gray, John Browne,
John Rider, John Moon, James Collier, and one
Thomas Browne. These were adjudged to have 200
stripes on horseback ; and, after, to be committed to the
galleys for the space of eight years.

Then was called John Keies, and was adjudged to

202 A BLESSED EXERCISE FOR GOOD FRIDAY! [Mi

have ioo stripes on horseback ; and condemned to serve
in the galleys for the space of six years.

Then were severally called, to the number of fifty-
three ; one after another: and every man had his several
judgement. Some to have 200 stripes on horseback, and
some 100 ; and condemned for slaves in the galleys,
some for six years, some for eight, and some for ten.

And then was I, Miles Phillips, called ; and was ad¬
judged to serve in a Monastery for five years [or rather
the three years 1 575-1 578, see pp. 204, 206] without any
stripes ; and to wear a fool’s coat, or San Benito , during
all that time.

Then were called John Story, Richard Williams,
David Alexander, Robert Cooke, Paul Horsewell,
and Thomas Hull. These six were condemned to serve
in Monasteries without stripes; some for three years, and
some for four ; and to wear the San Benito during all the
said time.

Which being done, and it now drawing towards night,
George Rivelie, Peter Momfrie, and Cornelius the
Irishman were called : and had their judgement to be burnt to
ashes. And so were presently [immediately] sent away to the
place of execution in the Market Place, but a little from the
Scaffold : where they were quickly burnt and consumed.

And as for us that had received our judgement, being 68 in
number [With the three burnt , the total number of the English
sufferers was therefore 71] ; we were carried back that night to
prison again.

And the next day, in the morning, being Good Friday [1st
April], the year of our Lord 1575, we were all brought into a
court of the Inquisitors’ Palace ; where we found a horse in
a readiness for every one of our men which were condemned
to have stripes, and to be committed to the galleys, which
were in number 61.

So they being enforced to mount up on horseback, naked
from the middle upwards, were carried to be shewed as a
spectacle for all the people to behold throughout the chief
and principal streets of the city ; and had the number of
stripes appointed to every one of them, most cruelly laid
upon their naked bodies with long whips, by sundry men ap¬
pointed to be the executioners thereof. And before our men

M- Phillips’ mild and fortunate sentence. 203

there went a couple of Criers, which cried as they went,
“Behold these English dogs! Lutherans! enemies to
GOD ! ” And all the way as they went, there were some of
the Inquisitors themselves, and of the Familiars of that
rakehell Order, that cried to the executioners, “ Strike ! Lay
on those English heretics! Lutherans ! GOD’s enemies ! ”

So this horrible spectacle being shewed round about the
city ; and they returned to the Inquisitor’s House, with their
backs all gore blood, and swollen with great bumps : they were
then taken from their horses ; and carried [taken] again to
prison, where they remained until they were sent into Spain
to the galleys, there to receive the rest of their martyrdom.

I, and the six others with me, which had judgement, and
were condemned amongst the rest, to serve an apprenticeship
in the Monasteries, were taken presently, and sent to certain
Religious Houses appointed for the purpose.

THE SIXTH CHAPTER.

Wherein is shewed how we were used in the Religious Houses ;
and that when the time was expired that we were adjudged to serve
in them , there came news to Mexico of Master Francis Drake's
beinginthe South Sea ; and what preparation was made to take him.
A nd how /, seeking to escape , was again taken , and put in prison
at Vera Cruz ; and how again I made my escape from thence.

, Miles Phillips, and William Lowe were ap¬
pointed to the Black Friars ; where I was appointed
to be an overseer of Indian workmen, who wrought
there in building of a new church. Amongst which
Indians, I learned their language or Mexican tongue very
perfectly; and had great familiarity with many of them;
whom I found to be a courteous and loving kind of people,
ingenious and of great understanding; and they hate and
abhor the Spaniards with all their hearts. They have used
such horrible cruelties against them, and do still keep them

204 Lutheran heretics reconciled or burnt. [m-

in such subjection and servitude that they, and the Negroes
also, do daily lie in wait to practice their deliverance out of
that thraldom and bondage that the Spaniards do keep them
in. William Lowe was appointed to serve the cook in the
kitchen ; Richard Williams and David Alexander were ap¬
pointed to the Grey Friars; John Story and Robert Cooke to
the White Friars. Paul Horsewell, the Secretary [Pedro
de la Rios] took to be his servant. Thomas Hull was
sent to a Monastery of priests ; where, afterwards, he died.

Thus we served out the years that we were condemned for,
with the use of our fools’ coats. And we must needs confess
that the Friars did use us very courteously ; for every one of
us had his chamber with bedding and diet, and all things
clean and neat. Yea, many of the Spaniards and Friars them¬
selves do utterly abhor and mislike that cruel Inquisition ;
and would, as they durst, bewail our miseries, and comfort
us the best they could : although they stood in such fear of
that devilish Inquisition, that they durst not let the left hand
know what the right doeth.

Now after that the time was expired, for which we were
condemned to serve in those Religious Houses ; we were then
brought again [in 157 8, in Phillip's case , seepp. 202, 206] before
the Chief Inquisitor; and had all our fools’ coats pulled off, and
hanged up in the Head Church, called Ecclesia Majore ; and
every man’s name and judgement written thereupon, with
this addition, An heretic Lutheran reconciled . And there are
also all their coats hanged up which were condemned to the
galleys, with their names and judgements, and under each
coat, Heretic Lutheran reconciled. And also, the coats and
names of the three that were burned; whereupon was
written, An obstinate heretic Lutheran burnt.

Then we were suffered to go up and down the country and
to place ourselves as we could ; and yet not so free but that
we very well knew that there was good espial always attend¬
ing us and all our actions : so that we durst not once to speak
or look awry.

David Alexander and Robert Cooke returned to serve
the Inquisitor [Don Pedro Moya de Contreres] ; who,
shortly after, married them both to two of his Negro women.
Richard Williams married a rich widow of Biscay, with

M.PhilHps.] pHILLIPS LEARNS to make taffetas. 205

4,000 pesos [—£800 = about £5, 000 now]. Paul Horse-
well is married to a Mestizoa ; as they name those whose
fathers were Spaniards, and their mothers Indians ; and this
woman which Paul Horswell hath married is said to be the
daughter of one that came in with Hernando Cortes the
Conqueror. Who had with her, in marriage, 4,000 pesos
[=£800— £5,000 now] and a fair house. John Story is
married to a Negro woman. William Lowe had leave and
license to go into Spain ; where he is now [? 1583] married.

For mine own part, I could never thoroughly settle myself to
marry in that country ; although many fair offers were made
unto me, of such as were of great ability and wealth : but I
could have no liking to live in that place where I must every¬
where see and know such horrible idolatry committed, and
durst not once, for my life, speak against it ; and therefore I
had always a longing and desire to this my native country.
To return and serve again in the mines, where I might have
gathered great riches and wealth ; I very well saw that
[thereby], at one time or another, I should fall again into the
danger of that devilish Inquisition ; and so be stripped of all,
with loss of life also. And therefore I made my choice rather
to learn to weave grogranes [grograms] and taffetas.

So, compounding with a Silk Weaver, I bound myself for
three years to serve him ; and gave him 150 pesos [=£30
= about £250 now] to teach me the science ; otherwise he
would not have taught me under a seven years’ apprenticeship.
And, by this means, I lived the more quiet and free from
suspicion.

Howbeit, I should, many times, be charged by Familiars
of that devilish House that “ I had a meaning to run away
into England, and to be a heretic Lutheran again ! ”

To whom, I would answer that “ They had no need to
suspect any such thing in me ; for that they all knew very
well, that it was impossible for me to escape by any manner
of means.”

Yet, notwithstanding, I was called before the Inquisitor,
and demanded, “ Why I did not marry ? ”

I answered, “ That I had bound myself at an occupation.”

“ Well,” said the Inquisitor, “ I know thou meanest to run
away ; and therefore I charge thee, here, upon pain of burning
as a relapsed heretic, that thou depart not out of this city !

206 The fright in Mexico, of Drake. [m ?hi^;

nor come near to the port of San Juan de Ulua, nor to any
other port.”

To the which, I answered “ That I would willingly obey.”

“ Yea,” said he, “ see thou do so ! And thy fellows also,
they shall have the like charge.”

So I remained at my science [trade] the full time [i.e.,
three years, 1578-1581], and learned the art.*

At the end [or rather , in the midst of his apprenticeship , see
pp. 202, 204-5] whereof, there came news to Mexico, thatthere
were certain Englishmen landed, with a great power, at the
port of Acapulco upon the South Sea ; and that they were
coming to Mexico, to take the spoil thereof : which wrought
a marvellous great fear amongst them ; and many of those
that were rich, began to shift for themselves, their wives and
children.

Upon which hurly burly, the Viceroy caused a general
Muster to be made of all the Spaniards in Mexico, and there
were found to the number of 7,000 and odd householders of
Spaniards in the city and suburbs ; and of single men,
unmarried, the number of 3,000; and of Mestizos (which are
counted to be the sons of Spaniards born of Indian women)
20,000.

Then were Paul Horsewell and I, Miles Phillips,
sent for before the Viceroy ; and were examined “ If we did
know an Englishman named Francis Drake, which was
brother to Captain Hawkins ? ”

To which we answered, that “ Captain Hawkins had not
any brother but one ; who was a man of the age of threescore
years or thereabouts, and was now Governor of Plymouth in
England. ”

And then he demanded of us, “ If we knew one Francis
Drake ? ”

* Sir Francis Drake was at Acapulco in March, 1579: by which
time, Phillips’s sentence had expired, and he is apprenticed to the Silk
Weaver ; therefore his sentence must have been for the three (not five)
years 1 575-1 578. Then he served an apprenticeship of three years (1 578-
1581); and, apparently, afterwards, continued as a workman with his
Master till he made his escape home in the Spanish Fleet of the autumn
of 1582 ; finally reaching England in February, 1583, which was in the
sixteenth year of his absence, or as he roughly reckons it, at/. 218 after
sixteen years' absence.

M* ^sSs'.] A WILD GOOSE CHASE AFTER DRAKE. 20J

And we answered, “ No ! ” [Of course they knew him well ;
but denied it.]

While these things were in doing, there came news that all
the Englishmen were gone. Yet were there 800 men made
out, under the leading of several Captains. Whereof 200
were sent to the port of San Juan de Ulua upon the North Sea,
under the conduct of Don Louis Suarez ; 200 were sent to
Guatemala in the South Sea, who had for their Captain,
Juan Cortes; 200 more were sent to Guatulco, a port of
the South Sea, over whom went for Captain, Don Pedro de
Roblis ; and 200 more were sent to Acapulco, the port where
it was said Captain Drake had been, and they had for
Captain, Doctor Roblis Alcade de Corte ; with whom I,
Miles Phillips, went as Interpreter, having license given
by the Inquisitors.

When we were come to Acapulco [in May, 1579], we found
that Captain Drake was departed from thence, more than a
month before we came thither [i.e., in March, 1579].

But yet our Captain Alcade de Corte, there presently
embarked himself, in a small ship of 60 tons or thereabouts,
having also in company with him, two other small barks ;
and not past 200 men in all. With whom, I went as Inter¬
preter in his own ship ; which, GOD knoweth ! was but weak
and ill appointed ; so that, for certain, if we had met with
Captain Drake, he might easily have taken us all.

We being embarked, kept our course, and ran southward
towards Panama, keeping still as nigh the shore as we could,
and having the land upon our left hand. Having coasted
thus, for the space of eighteen or twenty days ; and having
reached more to the south than Guatemala ; we met, at last,
with other ships which came from Panama. Of whom we
were certainly informed that Captain Drake was clean gone
off the coast, more than a month before.

So we returned back to Acapulco again, and there landed :
our Captain being forced thereunto : because his men were
very sore sea sick.

All the while that I was at sea with them, I was a glad
man. For I hoped that if we met with Master Drake, we
should all be taken : so that then I should have been freed
out of that danger and misery wherein I lived ; and should
return to my own country of England again. But missing

2o8 '‘Drake cannot get out, he must starve !”[M-?hii1sig;

thereof, when I saw there was no remedy, but that we must
needs come on land again. Little doth any man know the
sorrow and grief that inwardly I felt ; although outwardly, I
was constrained to make fair weather of it.

And so, being landed, the next morrow after, we began our
journey towards Mexico ; and passed these towns of name in
our way. As first, the town of Tuantepec, 50 leagues from
Mexico; from thence, to Washaca, 40 leagues from Mexico;
from thence, to Tepiaca, 24 leagues from Mexico; and from
thence, to La Puebla de los Angelos, where is a high hill
[volcano] which casteth out fire three times a day, which hill
is 18 leagues in a manner directly west from Mexico. From
thence, we went to Stapelapa, 8 leagues from Mexico ; and
there, our Captain and most of his men took boat, and came
to Mexico again [about July , 1579] : having been forth, about
the space of seven weeks or thereabouts.

Our Captain made report to the Viceroy, what he had done,
and how far he had travelled ; and that he was informed for
certain, that Captain Drake was not to be heard of.

To which, the Viceroy replied and said, “ Surely, we shall
have him shortly come into our hands, driven aland through
necessity, in some one place or other. For he being now in
these Seas of the South, it is not possible for him to get out
of them again. So that if he perish not at sea ; yet hunger
will force him to land ! ”

And then again I was commanded by the Viceroy, that I
should not depart the city of Mexico ; but always be at my
Master’s house [It is clear from this , that Phillips was still
serving his time with the Silk Weaver ] in a readiness at an
hour’s warning, whensoever I should be called for.

That notwithstanding, within one month after [ ? nearly
three years, i.e., in 1582], certain Spaniards going to Mecameca,
18 leagues from Mexico, to send away certain hides and
cochineal that they had there, at their Stantias or Dairy
Houses ; and my Master having leave of the Secretary [i.e.,
to the Inquisition, Pedro de la Rios ] for me to go with
them, I took my journey with them, being very well horsed
and appointed. Coming to Mecameca, and passing the time
there certain days, till we had perfect intelligence that the
Fleet was ready to depart ; I, not being past three days’

M* ?h 1583s:] Phillips arrested by mistake. 209

journey from the port of San Juan de Ulua, thought it
to be the meetest time for me to make an escape. And
I was the bolder, presuming upon my Spanish tongue,
which I spake as naturally as any of them all, thinking with
myself that when I came to San Juan de Ulua, I would get to
be entertained as a soldier, and so go home into Spain by the
same Fleet.

Therefore, secretly, one evening late, the moon shining
fair, I conveyed myself away : and riding so, for the space of
two nights and two days, sometimes in [the road] and some¬
times out, resting very little all that time, upon the second
day at night, I came to the town of Vera Cruz, distant from
the port of San Juan de Ulua, where the ships rode but
only five leagues : here purposing to rest myself a day or
two.

I was no sooner alighted, but, within the space of half an
hour after, I was by ill hap arrested, and brought before the
Justices there ; being taken and suspected to be a gentleman's
son of Mexico, that was run away from his father : who, in
truth, was the man they sought for.

So I being arrested and brought before the Justices, there
was a great hurly burly about the matter ; every man
charging me, that I was the son of such a man, dwelling in
Mexico : which I flatly denied, affirming that I knew not the
man ; yet they would not believe me, but urged still upon me,
that I was he that they sought for, and so I was conveyed
away to prison.

And as I was thus going to prison, to the further increase
of my grief, it chanced that, at that very instant, there was a
poor man in the press, that was come to town to sell hens ;
who told the Justices that “They did me wrong; and that, in
truth, he knew me very well, that I was an Englishman, and
no Spaniard."

They then demanded of him, “ How he knew that ? ” and
threatened him that said so, for that he was my companion,
and sought to convey me away from my father : so that he,
also, was threatened to be laid in prison with me.

Fie, for the discharge of himself, stood stiffly in it that “ I
was an Englishman ; and one of Captain Hawkins's men ;
and that he had known me wear the San Benito in the

2io Kindness from a fellow prisoner. [m-

Black Friars at Mexico, for three or four whole years
together.”

Which when they heard, they forsook him ; and began to
examine me anew, “ Whether that speech of his were true ?
Yea or no ! ”

Which when they perceived, that I could not deny ; and
perceiving that I was run from Mexico, and came thither of
purpose to convey myself away with the Fleet ; I was pre¬
sently committed to prison, with a sorrowful heart, often
wishing myself that that man which knew me, had at that
time, been further off : howbeit he, in sincerity, had com¬
passion of my distressed state ; thinking by his speech and
knowing of me, to have set me free from that present danger
which he saw me in. Howbeit, contrary to his expectation,
I was thereby brought into my extreme danger, and to the
hazard of my life ; yet there was no remedy but patience,
perforce.

And I was no sooner brought into prison, but I had a great
pair of bolts clapped on my legs ; and thus I remained in that
prison, for the space of three weeks : where were also many
other prisoners, which were thither committed for sundry
crimes, and condemned to the galleys.

During which time of imprisonment there, I found, amongst
those my prison fellows, some that had known me before, in
Mexico ; and truly they had compassion of me, and would
spare of their victuals and anything else that they had, to do
me good.

Amongst whom, there was one of them, that told me, that
he understood by a secret friend of his, which often came to
the prison to him, that I should shortly be sent back again
to Mexico by waggon ; so soon as the Fleet was gone from
San Juan de Ulua for Spain.

This poor man, my prison fellow, of himself and without
any request made by me, caused his said friend, which often
came to him to the grate of the prison, to bring him wine
and victuals, to buy for him two knives, which had files in
their backs, which files were so well made that they would
serve and suffice any prisoner to file off his irons ; and of
those knives or files, he brought me one, and told me that he
had caused it to be made for me, and let me have it at the
very price it cost him which was 2 pesos, the value of 8s. of

2 1 1

M'?hiis83.] Phillips files away his irons.

our money [ — about £3 now]. Which knife, when I had it, I
was a joyful man ; and conveyed the same into the foot of my
boot, upon the inside of my left leg.

So, within three or four days after I had thus received my
knife, I was suddenly called for, and brought before the head
Justice, which caused those my irons with the round bolt to
be striken off, and sent to a smith’s in the town ; where was
a new pair of bolts made ready for me, of another fashion,
which had a broad iron bar coming between the shackles :
and caused my hands to be made fast with a pair of
manacles.

And so was I presently laid in a waggon, all alone, which
was there ready to depart towards Mexico ; with sundry other
waggons, to the number of sixty, all laden with sundry mer¬
chandise which came in the Fleet out of Spain.

The waggon that I was in, was foremost of all the com¬
pany; and as we travelled, I, being alone in the waggon,
began to try if I could pluck my hands out of the manacles :
and, as GOD would ! although it were somewhat painful for
me, yet my hands were so slender that I could pull them
out, and put them in again ; and ever, as we went, when the
waggons made most noise, and the men busiest, I would be
working to file off my bolts.

Travelling thus, for the space of eight leagues from Vera
Cruz, we came to a high hill ; at the entering up of which,
as GOD would ! one of the wheels of the waggon wherein I
was, brake ; so that, by that means, the other waggons went
afore ; and the waggon man that had charge of me, set an
Indian carpenter a work to mend the wheel.

Here, at this place, they baited [fed] at a hostelry that
a Negro woman keeps; and, at this place, for that the going
up of the hill is very steep for the space of two leagues or
better, they do always accustom to take the mules of three
or four waggons, and to place them all together for the draw¬
ing up of one waggon ; and so to come down again, and fetch
up others in that order.

All which came very well to pass. For as it drew towards
night, when most of the waggoners were gone to draw up
their waggons in this sort, I, being alone, had quickly filed
off my bolts. And so espying my time, in the dark of the

2i2 Philips escapes away at last. [M,?hi^g;

evening, before they returned down the hill again, I conveyed
myself into the woods there adjoining, carrying my bolts and
manacles with me, and a few biscuits and two small cheeses.

Being come into the woods, I threw my irons into a thick
bush ; and then covered them with moss and other things :
and then shifted for myself as I might, all that night.

And thus, by the good providence of Almighty GOD, I
was freed from mine irons, all saving the collar that was
about my neck j and so got my liberty the second time.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.

Wherein is shewed how I escaped to Guatemala upon the South
Sea, and from thence , to the port of Cavallios, where I got passage
to go into Spain. And of our arrival at the Havana ; and our
coming into Spain ; where I was again like[ly] to have been com¬
mitted prisoner. And how, through the great mercy of GOD, I
escaped ; and came home in safety, in February, 1582 \i.e. 1583].

He next morning, daylight being come, I perceived
by the sun rising, what way to take to escape their
hands ; for when I fled I took the way into the
woods upon the left hand, and having left that way
that went to Mexico upon my right hand, I thought to keep
my course, as the woods and mountains lay, still direct south,
as near as I could ; by means whereof, I was sure to convey
myself far enough from that way that went to Mexico.

And as I was thus going in the woods, I saw many great
fires made to the north, not past a league from the mountain
where I was.

Travelling thus in my boots, with my iron collar about my
neck, and my bread and cheese ; the very same forenoon, I
met with a company of Indians, which were hunting deer for
their sustenance : to whom I spake in the Mexican tongue,
and told them how that I had, of a long time, been kept in
prison by the cruel Spaniards, and did desire them to help

M* A MOST BLESSED GREY FRIAR. 2 1 3

me to file off mine iron collar; which they willingly did,
rejoicing greatly with me, that I was thus escaped out of
the Spaniards’ hands.

Then I desired that I might have one of them to guide me
out of those desert mountains, towards the South ; which
they also most willingly did : and so they brought me to an
Indian town eight leagues distant from thence, named
Shalapa [ ? now Jalapa \ ; where I stayed three days, for
that I was somewhat sickly.

At which town, with the gold that I had quilted in my
doublet, I bought me a horse of one of the Indians, which
cost me 6 pesos [=£1 4 s.=about £9 now] ; and so, travelling
South, within the space of two leagues, I happened to over-
take a Grey Friar: one that I had been familiar withal in
Mexico, whom then, I knew to be a zealous good man, and
one that did much lament the cruelty used against us by
the Inquisitors. And, truly, he used me very courteously.

I, having confidence in him, did indeed tell him that I was
moved to adventure to see if I could get out of the said
country, if I could find shipping ; and did therefore pray of
of him aid, direction, and advice herein : which he faithfully
did, not only in directing me which was my safest way to
travel ; but he also, of himself, kept me company for the
space of three days, and ever as we came to the Indians’
houses, who used and entertained us well, he gathered among
them, in money, to the value of 20 pesos [=£^.=£^2 now ] ;
which, at my departure from him, he freely gave unto
me.

So came I to the city of Guatemala, which is distant from
Mexico, about 250 leagues ; where I stayed six days, for that
my horse was weak.

From thence, I travelled, still south-and-by-east, seven
days’ journey, passing by certain Indian towns, until I
came to an Indian town distant from Mexico, direct South,

309 leagues.

And here, at this town, inquiring to go to the port of
Cavallios on the North-East Sea ; it was answered, that in
travelling thither, I should not come to any town in ten or
twelve days’ journey.

So here, I hired two Indians to be my guide, and I bought
hens and bread to serve us so long a time ; and took with us

214 Is A SOLDIER IN THE HOMEWARD FLEET. [M*

things to kindle fire every night because of the wild beasts,
and to dress our meat. Every night, when we rested, my
Indian guides would make two great fires, between which, we
placed ourselves and my horse ; and in the night time, we
should hear the lions’ [!] roars, with tigers [!], ounces, and other
beasts ; and some of them we should see in the night, which
had eyes shining like fire.

And travelling thus for the space of twelve days, we came
at last to the port of Cavallios, upon the East Sea ; distant
from Guatemala, south-and-by-east, 200 leagues ; and from
Mexico, 450 or thereabouts. This is a good harbour for
ships, and it is without either Castle or Bulwark.

Having despatched away my guides, I went down to the
haven, where I saw certain ships ladened chiefly with Canary
wines ; where I spake with one of the Masters, who asked me,
“ What countryman I was ? ”

I told him that “ I was born in Granada.”

And he said, “Then I was his countryman.”

I required him that “ I might pass home with him, in his
ship, paying for my passage.”

And he said, “Yea, so that I had a safe conduct or letter
testimonial to shew, that he might incur no danger : for,”
said he, “it may be you have killed some man, or be indebted :
and would therefore run away.”

To that, I answered, “ There was not any such cause.”

Well, in the end, we grew to a price, that for 60 pesos
[ =£i2=about £ 100 now], he would carry me into Spain.

A glad man was I at this good hap ! and I quickly sold my
horse, and made my provision of hens and bread to serve me
in my passage.

And thus, within two days after, we set sail, and never
stayed until we came to the Havana ; which is distant from
the port of Cavallios, by sea, 500 leagues : where we found
the whole Fleet of Spain, which was bound home from the
Indies.

And here, I was hired for a soldier, to serve in the
Admiral’s ship of the same Fleet, wherein the General
himself went.

There landed while I was there, four ships out of Spain,
being all full of soldiers and ordnance, of which number,

Spanish supplies for the W. I., in 1582. 215

there were 200 men and four great brass pieces of ordnance ;
although the Castle was before sufficiently provided. 200
men more, and certain ordnance were sent to Campeche ; 200
with ordnance to Florida; and lastly 100 to San Juan de Ulua.
As for ordnance there, they have sufficient, and of the very
same which was ours, which we had in the Jesus ; and those
others which we had planted in the place where the Viceroy
betrayed Master Hawkins, our General: as hath been declared.
The sending of those soldiers to every of those ports, and
the strengthening of them, was done by commandment from
the King of Spain : who wrote also by them, to the General of
his Fleet, giving him in charge so to do ; as also directing him
what course he should keep in his coming home into Spain.
Charging him, at any hand, not to come nigh to the Isles
of the Azores, but to keep his course more to the northward ;
advertising him withal, what number and power of French and
other Ships of War Don Antonio had, at that time, at
Terceira and the Isles aforesaid ; which the General of the
Fleet well considering, and what great share of riches he had
to bring home with him into Spain, did, in all, very dutifully
observe and obey. For, in truth, he had in his said Fleet,
37 Sail of ships : and in every of them, there was as good as
30 pipes of silver, one with another ; besides great store of
gold, cochineal, sugar, hides, and cana fistula, with Apothecary
drugs.

This, our General, who was called Don Pedro de Gusman,
did providently take order for, for their most strength and
defence, if need should be, to the uttermost of his power :
and commanded, upon pain of death, that neither passenger
nor soldiershould come aboard, without his sword and harque-
buss, with shot and powder ; to the end that they might be the
better able to encounter the fleet of Don Antonio, if they
should hap to meet with them, or any of them. And ever as
the weather was fair, the said General would himself go
aboard from one ship to another ; and see that every man
had his full provision, according to the commandment
given.

Yet, to speak truly what I think, two good tall Ships of
War would have made a foul spoil amongst them. For, in
all this Fleet, there were not any that were strong and war¬
like appointed ; saving only the admiral and vice-admiral :

216 Again discovered to be an Englishman; [m-

and again, over and besides the weakness and the ill furnish¬
ing of the rest, they were all so deeply laden, that they had
not been able, if they had been charged, to have held out any
long fight.

Well, thus we set sail, and had a very ill passage home,
the weather was so contrary. We kept our course ill a
manner north-east, and brought ourselves to the height of
420 N. Lat., to be sure not to meet with Don Antonio his
fleet : and were upon our voyage from the 4th of June until
the 10th of September [1582] ; and never saw land till we
fell with the Arenas Gordas hard by San Lucar de Barra-
meda.

And there was an order taken that none should go on shore
until he had license.

As for me, I was known by one in the ship ; who told the
Master that I was an Englishman; which, as GOD would !
it was my good hap to hear ; for if I had not heard it, it had
cost me my life. Notwithstanding, I would not take any
knowledge of it, and seemed to be merry and pleasant that
we were all come so well in safety.

Presently after, license came, that we should go on shore :
and I pressed to be gone with the first.

Howbeit, the Master came unto me, and said, “ Sirrah !
you must go with me to Seville by water ! ” I knew his
meaning well enough ; and that he meant to offer me up as
a sacrifice to the Holy House. For the ignorant zeal of a
number of these superstitious Spaniards is such, that they
think that they have done GOD good service, when they
have brought a Lutheran heretic to the fire to be burnt.
For so do they account of us.

Well, I perceiving all this, took upon me not to suspect
anything, but was still jocund and merry; howbeit, I knew
it stood upon me to shift for myself. So waiting my time,
when the Master was asleep in his cabin, I conveyed myself
secretly down by the shrouds into the ship’s boat, and made
no stay, but cutting the rope wherewith she was moored, and
so by the cable hauled on shore ; where I leapt on land, and
let the boat go whither it would.

Thus, by the help of GOD, I escaped that day, and then
never stayed at San Lucar ; but went all night by the way
which I had seen others take towards Seville.

M ^S:] BUT HE AGAIN escapes, and keeps close. 217

So that, the next morning, I came to Seville, and sought
me out a work master, that I might fall to my science, which
was the weaving of taffetas. And being entertained, I set
myself close to my work, and durst not, for my life ! once
stir abroad for fear of being known.

Being thus at my work, within four days after, I heard one
of my fellows say that he heard there was great inquiry made
for an Englishman that came home in the Fleet.

“ What, an heretic Lutheran was it ! ” quoth I ; “ I would
to GOD, I might know him ! Surely, I would present him to
the Holy House ! ”

And thus I kept still within doors at my work ; and feigned
myself not well at ease ; and that I would labour as I might
to get me new clothes. And continuing thus for the space
of three months, I called for my wages ; and bought me all
things new, different from the apparel that I did wear at sea ;
and yet durst not be overbold to walk abroad.

And, after, understanding that there were certain English
ships at San Lucar, bound for England: I took a boat, and
went aboard one of them, and desired the Master that I might
have passage with him to go into England ; and told him
secretly, that I was one of those which Captain Hawkins did
set on shore in the Indies.

He very courteously prayed me to have him excused ; for
he durst not meddle with me, and prayed me therefore to
return from whence I came.

Which when I perceived, with a sorrowful heart, GOD
knoweth ! I took my leave of him ; not without watery
cheeks.

And then, I went to Porto Santa Maria, which is three
leagues from San Lucar ; where I put myself to be a soldier
in the King of Spain’s Galleys, which were bound for
Majorca.

Coming thither, in the end of the Christmas holidays [1 i.e
about the 6th January , 1583], I found there, two English ships,
the one of London, and the other of the West Country :
which were ready freighted, and stayed but for a fair wind.
To the Master of the one which was of the West Country,
went I, and told him that “ I had been two years in Spain,
to learn the language ; and that I was now desirous to go

2 1 8 At length he reaches home, at Poole. [m-

home, and see my friends, for that I lacked maintenance.”
So having agreed with him, for my passage, I took shippng.

And thus, through the providence of Almighty GOD, after
sixteen years' absence ; having sustained many and sundry
great troubles and miseries, as by this Discourse appeareth :
I came home to this, my native country of England, in the
ship called the Landret , and arrived at Poole, in the month
of February, in the year 1582 \ix,, 1583].

[Third Narrative, by another
Survivor.]

THE RARE

Travels of Job Hortop, an

Englishman, who was not heard of,

in three and twenty years’ space.

Wherein is declared the dangers

he escaped in his Voyage to Guinea ;
where, after he was set on shore, in a
wilderness near to Panico [Tampico],
he endured much slavery and
bondage in the Spanish
Galleys.

Wherein also he discourseth many strange and wonder¬
ful things seen in the time of his travels ; as well
concerning wild and savage people, as also
of sundry monstrous beasts, fishes,
and fowls : and also trees of
wonderful form and
quality.

LONDON:

Printed for William Wright.

1 5 9 x*

[v Title and Dedication of the original tract only are here reprinted. The
narrative itself is taken as rewritten in Hakluyt.]

220

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To the most High and Mighty Princess

ELIZABETH,

the grace of GOD , Queen of

England , France , <sW Ireland ,

Defendress of the Faith , ©V.

Your Highness’s most humble subject, Job Hortop,
heartily prayeth for a continuance of your Majesty’s
most prosperous reign.

RACIOUS AND RENOWNED SOVEREIGN!

Eing, about three and twenty years’ past, pressed
forth to serve in a Gunner’s room, for the Guinea
Voyage, of which Sir John Hawkins was General;
such was our success, before his return into Eng¬
land [that] we were distressed through want of
victuals, nor could we obtain any for money. By means
whereof, many of us (though to our General’s great grief),
were constrained to be set on shore, in a land inhabited by
none but Negroes [Indians] and wild people.

Since which time, most dread Sovereign ! I have passed
sundry perils in the wildernesses, and escaped many dangers ;
wherein my life often stood in great hazard ; yet, by the
Providence of GOD preserved.

And being now come into my native country of England ;
I do, in all humbleness, prostrate myself, together with this
Discourse of my travels, at your Highness’s feet! humbly
beseeching Your Majesty to accept the same at your subject’s
hands, as our Saviour Christ accepted the widow’s mite.

And thus, I humbly take my leave ! praying
for the prosperous reign of your
most Excellent Majesty.

Most G

22 1

The Rare Travels of Job H o r t o p .

[Opening of the original tract of 1591.]

O discourse, in large circumstances, the
full scope of this my tedious travail would
seem superfluous ; and in omitting that
which is most needful, I might commit
great folly : wherefore, to avoid circum¬
stance, and yet to deliver matters of chiefest
effect; I will, so near as I may, briefly, yet
truly, run over the principal points, and
particular substance of my travels, troubles, and dangers
sustained since my departure, even until my return into
England : which I am most joyful to see to stand in so happy
and flourishing estate, which I pray GOD still to continue,
to the world’s end !

[Opening of the revised and better written text in Hakluyt. Voyages ,
iii. 487. Ed. 1600.]

Ot untruly, nor without cause, said Job, the faith¬
ful servant of GOD, whom the Sacred Scriptures
tell us to have dwelt in the land of Hus, that
“ Man, being born of a woman, living a short time,
is replenished with many miseries” : which some
know by reading of histories, many by the view of others’
calamities, and I, by experience in myself; as this present
ensuing Treatise shall shew.

It is not unknown to many, that I, Job Hortop, Powder
Maker, was born at Bourne, a town in Lincolnshire.

222 Francis Drake’s first command.

From my age of twelve years, I was brought at Redriffe
[Radclijfe] , near London, with Master Francis, who was the
Queen’s Majesty’s Powder Maker : whom I served, until I
was pressed [compelled] to go on the Third Voyage to the
West Indies, with the Right Worshipful Sir John Hawkins;
who appointed me to be one of the gunners in Her Majesty’s
Ship, called the Jesus of Lubeck.

Who set sail from Plymouth, in the month of October, 1567,
having with him, another Ship of Her Majesty’s, called the
Minion ; and four ships of his own, namely, the Angel , the
Swallow , the Judith , and the William and John. He directed
his Vice Admiral, that if foul weather did separate them,
to meet at the island of Teneriffe.

After which, by the space of seven days and seven nights,
we had such storms at sea, that we lost our long boats and a
pinnace ; with some men.

Coming to the island of Teneriffe, there our General heard
that his Vice Admiral, with the Swallow and the William and
John, were at the island called Gomera ; where finding his
Vice Admiral, he anchored, took in fresh water, and set sail
for Cape Blanc.

In the way, we took a Portuguese caravel, ladened with
mullets.

From thence, we sailed to Cape de Verde.

In our course thither, we met a Frenchman of Rochelle,
called Captain Bland ; who had taken a Portuguese caravel :
whom our Vice Admiral chased and took. Captain Drake,
now Sir Francis Drake, was made Master and Captain of
the caravel.*

So we kept our way, till we came to Cape de Verde ; and
there we anchored, took our boats, and set soldiers on shore.
Our General was the first that leapt on land ; and with him,
Captain Dudley.

There, we took certain Negroes ; but not without damage
to ourselves : for our General, Captain Dudley, and eight
others of our company were hurt with poisoned arrows.

* This would appear to be Drake’s first command. The Captain of
the Judith , when she left England, is not stated. Apparently he died (?),
and Drake was promoted (?) from this caravel ( i.e . the Grace of God , com¬
manded by the Frenchman, Captain Bland, at the fight, /. 184) to the
Judith , in which he brought home the first news of the disaster,//. 85-8.

The way Negroes kill the hippopotami. 223

About nine days after, the eight that were wounded, died.
Our General was taught by a Negro, to draw the poison out
of his wound, with a clove of garlic ; whereby he was cured.

From thence, we went to Sierra Leone, where be monstrous
fishes, called sharks, which will devour men.

I, amongst others, was sent in the Angel , with two pinnaces,
into the river, called Calousa, to seek two caravels that were
there, trading with the Negroes. We took one of them, with
the Negroes, and brought them away.

In this river, in the night time, we had one of our pinnaces
bulged by a sea horse [hippopotamus] : so that our men
swimming about the river, were all taken into the other
pinnaces ; except two that took hold one of another, and
were carried away by the sea horse [or rather drowned ]. This
monster hath the just proportion of a horse, saving that his
legs be short, his teeth very great and a span in length. He
used, in the night, to go on land into the woods ; seeking, at
unawares, to devour the Negroes in their cabins : whom they,
by their vigilancy, prevent, and kill him in this manner. The
Negroes keep watch, and diligently attend their coming ;
and when they are gone into the woods, they forthwith lay a
great tree overthwart the way : so that, at their return, for
that their legs be so short, they cannot go over it. Then
the Negroes set upon them, with their bows, arrows, and
darts ; and so destroy them.

From thence, we entered the river called the Casseroes ;
where there were other caravels trading with the Negroes :
and them we took. In this island betwixt the river and the
main, trees grow with oysters upon them.

There grow Palmito trees, which be as high as a ship’s
mainmast ; and on their tops grow nuts, wine, and oil,
which they call Palmito Wine and Palmito Oil.

The Plantain tree also groweth in that country. The tree
is as big as a man’s thigh, and as high as a fir pole. The
leaves thereof be long and broad ; and on the top grow the
fruit which are called Plantains. They are crooked, and a
cubit long, and as big as a man’s finger. They grow on
clusters. When they be ripe, they be very good and dainty
to eat : sugar is not more delicate in taste than they be.

From thence, with the Angel , the Judith , and the two
pinnaces, we sailed to Sierra Leone ; where our General was

224 Death of Captain Dudley.

at that time ; who with the Captains and soldiers went up
into the river called Taggarin, to take a town of the Negroes :
where we found three Kings of that country, with 50,000
Negroes, besieging the same town ; which they could not
take, in many years before, when they had warred with it.

Our General made a breach, entered, and valiantly took
the town ; where were five Portuguese, which yielded them¬
selves to his mercy, and he saved their lives.

We took, and carried from thence, for traffic in the West
Indies, 500 Negroes.

The three Kings drove 7,000 Negroes into the sea, at low
water, at a point of land ; where they were all drowned in
the ooze, for that they could not take their canoes to save
themselves.

We returned back again, in our pinnaces, to the ships, and
there took in fresh water, and made ready to sail towards
Rio Grande.

At our coming thither, we entered with the Angel , the
Judith , and the two pinnaces ; and found there, seven Portu¬
guese caravels, which made great fight with us. In the end,
by GOD’s help, we won the victory, and drave them to the
shore: from whence, with the Negroes, they fled; and we
fetched the caravels from the shore into the river.

The next morning, Master Francis Drake with his
caravel, the Swallow , and the William and John , came into
the river, with Captain Dudley and his soldiers: who landed,
being but a hundred soldiers, and fought with 7,000 Negroes,
burned the town, and returned to our General, with the loss
of one man.

In that place, there be many musk-cats, which breed in
hollow trees. The Negroes take them in a net, put them in
a cage, nourish them very daintily, and take the musk from
them with a spoon.

Now we directed our course from Guinea towards the
West Indies.

And by the way, died Captain Dudley.

In sailing towards the Indies, the first land that we
escried, was the island called Dominica : where, at our com¬
ing, we anchored ; and took in fresh water and wood for our
provision.

fc?°irs9?:] Capture of Rio de la Hacha. 225

Which done, we sailed towards the island called Margarita ;
where our General, in despite of the Spaniards, anchored,
landed, and took in fresh victuals.

A mile off the island, there is a rock in the sea, whereon do
breed many fowls like unto Barnacles. In the night, we
went out in our boats, and killed many of them with cudgels;
and brought them, with many of their eggs aboard with us.
Their eggs be as big as Turkey’s eggs, and speckled like
them. We did eat them, and found them very good meat.

From thence, we sailed to Burboroata, which is in the
main land of the West Indies [i.e., on the northern shore of
South America]. There we came in, moored our ships, and
tarried two months, trimming and dressing our ships : and, in
the meantime, traded with certain Spaniards of that country.

There, our General sent us unto a town, called Placencia,
which stood on a high hill, to have intreated a Bishop that
dwelt there, for his favour and friendship in their laws : who,
hearing of our coming, for fear, forsook the town.

In our way up the hill to Placencia, we found a monstrous
venomous worm with two heads. His body was as big as a
man’s arm, and a yard long. Our Master, Robert Barret,
did cut him in sunder, with his sword ; and it made it as
black as if it were coloured with ink.

Here be many tigers [jaguars?], monstrous and furious
beasts, which, by subtlety, devour and destroy many men.
They use the traded ways, and will shew themselves twice or
thrice to the travellers; and so depart secretly, lurking till
they be past : then, suddenly and at unawares, they leap
upon them, and devour them. They had so used two of our
company, had not one of them looked behind.

Our General sent three ships unto the Island of Cura5oa
to make provision for the rest ; where they remained until
his coming.

He sent from thence, the Angel and the Judith to Rio de la
Hacha ; where we [ Hortop apparently was serving in the
Angel at this time] anchored before the town. The Spaniards
shot three pieces at us from the shore ; whom we requited
with two of ours, and shot through the Governor’s house.
We weighed anchor, and anchored again without the shot
of the town ; where we rode, five days, in despite of the
Spaniards and their shot.

226 The English fleet at Santa Marta.

In the mean space, there came a Caravel of Advice
[Despatch boat ] from Santo Domingo; which, with the Angel
and Judith, we chased and drove to the shore. We fetched
him from thence, in spite of two hundred Spaniard harque-
buss shot [i.e., harquebussiers\ ; and anchored again before the
town, and rode there with them till our General’s coming :
who anchored, landed his men, and valiantly took the town,
with the loss of one man, whose name was Thomas Surgeon.

We landed, and planted our field ordnance on the shore
for our safety. We drove the Spaniards up into the country
above two leagues ; whereby they were enforced to trade
with our General, to whom he sold most part of his Negroes.

In this river we killed a monstrous legarto or crocodile [or
rather alligator'], at sunset, in the port. Seven of us went in
the pinnace up the river, carrying with us a dog, unto
whom, with rope yarn, we bound a great hook of steel,
with a chain that had a swivel, which we put under the
dog’s belly, the point of the hook coming over his back, fast
bound as aforesaid. We put him overboard, and veered out
our rope by little and little, rowing away with our boat.

The legarto came and presently swallowed up the dog,
then did we row hard till we had choked him. He plunged
and made a wonderful stir in the water. We leapt on shore,
and hauled on land. He was twenty-three feet by the rule,
headed like a hog, in body like a serpent, full of scales as
broad as a saucer, his tail long and full of knots as big as a
“ falcon shot.” He had four legs ; his feet had long nails
like unto a dragon.

We opened him, flayed him, dried his skin, and stuffed it
with straw, meaning to have brought it home, had not the
ship been cast away.

These monsters will carry away and devour both man
and horse.

From thence, we shaped our course to Santa Marta,
where we landed, traded, and sold certain Negroes.

There two of our number killed a monstrous adder, going
towards his cave with a cony in his mouth. His body was
as big as any man’s thigh, and seven feet long. Upon his
tail he had sixteen knots, every one as big as a great walnut,
which, they say, do shew his age. His colour was green

^etJ°irs9?G Spanish brag, and English assurance. 227

and yellow. They opened him and found two conies in his
belly.

From thence we sailed to Cartagena, where we went
in, moored our ships, and would have traded with them ;
but they durst not for fear of the King.

We brought up the Minion against the Castle, and shot at
the Castle and town.

Then we landed in an island, where they have many
gardens ; where, in a cave, we found certain botijos of wine,
which we brought away with us. In recompense whereof, our
General commanded to be set on shore woollen and linen
cloth, to the value thereof.

From hence, by foul weather, we were forced to seek the
port of San Juan de Ulua.

In our way, thwart of [off] Campeche, we met with a
Spaniard, a small ship, which was bound for Santo Domingo.
It had in it a Spaniard called Augustine de Villa Neuva;
who was the man that betrayed all the noblemen in the
Indies, and caused them to be beheaded ; wherefore he, with
two Friars, fled to Santo Domingo. We took and brought
them with us into the port of San Juan de Ulua. Our
General made great account of him, and used him like a
Nobleman ; howbeit, in the end, he was one of them that
betrayed us.

When we had moored our ships, and landed [at San Juan
de Ulua] ; we mounted the ordnance that we found there in
the Island ; and for our safety, kept watch and ward.

The next day after, we discovered the Spanish Fleet ;
whereof Lucon, a Spaniard, was General. With him came
a Spaniard called Don Martin de Henriquez, whom the
King of Spain sent to be his Viceroy of the Indies.

He sent a pinnace with a flag of truce unto our General,
to know, “ Of what country those ships were, that rode there
in the King of Spain's port ? ”

Who said, “ They were the Queen of England’s ships,
which came in there for victuals for their money : wherefore
if your General will come in here ! he shall give me victuals
and other necessaries, and I will go out on the one side of the
port, and he shall come in on the other side.”

228 Villa Neuva tries to stab Hawkins. [^°^;

The Spaniard returned for answer, “ He was a Viceroy,
and had a thousand men, and therefore he would come in ! ”

Our General said, “ If he be a Viceroy ; I represent my
Queen’s person ; and I am a Viceroy as well as he ! and if he
have a thousand men, my powder and shot will take the
better place ! ”

Then the Viceroy, after counsel among themselves, yielded
to our General’s demand, swearing “ by his King and his
crown, by his commission and authority that he had from his
King, that he would perform it ! ” and thereupon pledges
were given on both parts.

Our General, bearing a godly and Christian mind, void of
fraud and deceit, judged the Spaniards to have done the like,
delivered to them ten gentlemen ; not doubting to have
received the like from them : but the faithless Spaniards, in
costly apparel, gave of the basest of their company ; as after¬
wards it was well known.

These things finished, Proclamation was made on both
sides that “ on pain of death, no occasion should be given,
whereby any quarrel should grow to the breach of the
league ” : and then they peaceably entered the port, with
great triumph on both sides.

The Spaniards presently brought a great Hulk, a ship of
600 [tons] , and moored her by the side of the Minion ; and
they cut out ports in their other ships, planting their
ordnance towards us.

In the night, they filled the Hulk with men, to lay the
Minion aboard, as the sequel did show; which made our
General doubtful of their dealings. Wherefore, for that he
could speak the Spanish tongue, he sent Robert Barret
aboard the Viceroy [’s ship], to know his meaning in those
dealings. Who willed him and his company [i.e., his boat's
crew] to come in to him ; whom he presently [instantly] com¬
manded to be set in the bilbows [irons] .

And forthwith ; for a watchword among the false Spaniards,
a cornet [trumpet] was sounded for the enterprising of their
pretended [intended] treason, against our General : whom
Augustine de Villa Neuva sitting at dinner [Hortop says,
p. 317, the fight began at 10 a.m., which would be the dinner hour
at sea, but Hawkins says at 8 a.m., at p. 112] with him, should

Fe£°is9?:] A Gunners description of the Fight. 229

then presently have killed with a poinado [dagger], which he
had privily in his sleeve: which was espied and prevented by
one John Chamberlayne, who took the poinado out of his
sleeve. Our General hastily rose up, and commanded him
to be put prisoner in the Steward’s room, and to be kept
with two men.

The faithless Spaniards thinking all things had been
finished to their desire, suddenly sounded a trumpet ; and
therewith 300 Spaniards entered the Minion : whereat our
General, with a loud and fierce voice called unto us, saying,
“ GOD and Saint George ! upon those traitorous villains, and
rescue the Minion ! I trust in GOD, the day shall be ours ! ”

With that, the mariners and soldiers leaped out of the
Jesus of Lubeck into the Minion , and beat out the Spaniards;
and with a shot out of her [the Minion ] fired the Spaniard’s
vice-admiral; where the most part of 300 Spaniards were
spoiled, and blown overboard, with powder.

Their admiral also was on fire half an hour.

We cut our cables, wound off our ships, and presently
fought with them. They came upon us on every side, and
continued the fight from ten o’clock until it was night. They
killed all our men that were on shore in the island ; saving
three [of whom Hortop was one; but see pp. 1x2, 100, 18 1]
which by swimming got aboard the Jesus of Lubeck. They
sank the General’s ship called the Angel , and took the
Swallow. The Spaniard’s admiral had above threescore
shot through her; and many of his men were spoiled. Four
other of their ships were sunk.

There were in that Fleet and that came from the shore to
rescue them, 1,500 : we slew of them 540, as we were credibly
informed by a Note that came to Mexico.

In this fight, the Jesus of Lubeck had five shot through
her mainmast, her foremast was struck in sunder under the
hounds [the holes in the timber cheeks , through which the ropes
hoist the sails ] with a chain-shot ; and her hull was wonder¬
fully pierced with shot : therefore it was impossible to bring
her away.

They set two of their own ships on fire* intending therewith

* It will be noticed that Hortop’s account differs somewhat from the
former ones ; and yet it may be harmonized. The fireships burnt neither
the Minion, , nor the Jesus ; the latter of which was taken by the Spaniards,

230 Captain Bland fires the Grace of God.

to have burnt the Jesus of Lubeck; which we prevented by cut¬
ting our cables in the hawse, and winding off by our stern-
fast. The Minion was forced to set sail and stand off from us,
and come to an anchor without shot of the island.

Our General courageously cheered up his soldiers and
gunners, and called to Samuel his page, for a cup of beer;
who brought it to him in a silver cup : and he drinking to all
the men, willed “the gunners to stand by their ordnance
lustily like men ! ” He had no sooner set the cup out of his
hand, but a demi-culverin shot struck away the cup and a
cooper’s plane that stood by the mainmast, and ran out on
the other side of the ship ; which nothing dismayed our
General, for he ceased not to encourage us, saying, “ Fear
nothing ! For GOD, who hath preserved me from this shot,
will also deliver us from these traitors and villains ! ”

Then Captain Bland [apparently in command of the Grace
of God] meaning to have turned out of port, had his main¬
mast struck overboard with a chain-shot, that came from the
shore : wherefore he anchored, fired his ship, took his pinnace
with all his men, and came aboard the Jesus of Lubeck to
our General; who said to him, “ He thought he would not
have run away from him ! ”

He answered, “ He was not minded to have run away
from him ; but his intent [i.e., previous to the loss of his main¬
mast] was to have turned up, and to have laid the weather-
most ship of the Spanish fleet aboard, and fired his ship in
hope therewith to have set on fire the Spanish fleet.”

He said, “ If he had done so, he had done well ! ” With this
night came on.

Our General [had] commanded the Minion , for safeguard of
her masts, to be brought under the Jesus of Lubeck’s lee.

He willed Master Francis Drake to come in with the
Judithi and to lay the Minion aboard, to take in men and
other things needful ; and to go out. And so he did. [ See
p. 101, on Drake’s alleged desertion of the Minion. His trying
to get home by himself , crowded as the little Judith must have
been , seems to have been the wisest thing he could do; though
Hawkins , no doubt , thought it very hard.]

At night, when the wind came off the shore, we [i.e., the

in boats. His narrative is very important here as he was taken on
board the Jesus and therefore an eye witness.

Fek°ir59?.'] Hawkins’s sorrowful leave taking. 231

Minion] set sail, and went out in despite of the Spaniards
and their shot ; where [the next day] we anchored with two
anchors under an island : the wind being northerly, which was
wonderfully dangerous, and we feared every hour to be driven
with the lee shore.

In the end, when the wind came larger, we weighed anchor
and set sail, seeking the river of Panuco for water, whereof
we had very little ; and victuals were so scarce that we were
driven to eat hides, cats, rats, parrots, monkeys, and dogs.

Wherefore our General was forced to divide his company
into two parts : for there was a mutiny among them for want
of victuals. And some said, “ They had rather be on the
shore to shift for themselves amongst the enemies, than to
starve on shipboard.”

He asked them, “Who would go on shore, and who would
tarry on shipboard?” Those that would go on shore, he
willed to go on fore mast ; and those that would tarry, on
’baft mast. Fourscore and sixteen of us were willing to
depart [ but 114 actually landed, see p. 187]. Our General gave
unto every one of us six yards of Roane [woollen] cloth ; and
money to them that demanded it.

When we were landed, he came unto us ; where friendly
embracing every one of us, he was greatly grieved that he
was forced to leave us behind him. He counselled us “to
serve GOD, and to love one another,” and thus courteously
he gave us a sorrowful tarewell ; and promised “ if GOD
sent him safe home, he would do what he could, that so many
of us as lived, should, by some means, be brought into Eng¬
land.” And so he did.

Since my return into England, I have heard that many
misliked that he left us so behind him, and brought away [16]
Negroes. But the reason is this. For them, he might have
had victuals or any other thing needful, if, by foul weather,
he had been driven upon the [West Indian] islands ; which,
for gold or silver, he could not have had.

And thus our General departed to his ship, and we
remained on land. Where, for our safeties, fearing the wild
Indians that were about us, we kept watch all night. At

232 Stripped by the Chichemics.

sunrising, we marched on our way, three and three in a rank,
until we came into a field under a grove ; where the Indians
came upon us, asking us, “ What people we were ? and how
we came there ? ”

Two of our company, namely, Anthony Goddard and
John Cornish, for that they could speak the Spanish tongue,
went to them, and said, “ We were Englishmen, that never
came in that country before : and that we had fought with
the Spaniards: and for that we lacked victuals, our General
had set us on shore.”

They asked us, “ Whither we intended to go ? ”

We said, “To Panuco.”

The captain of the Indians willed us to give unto them
some of our clothes and shirts.

Which we did.

Then he bade us give them all.

But we would not so do. Whereupon John Cornish was
then slain with an arrow, which an Indian boy, that stood by
the captain, shot at him ; whereupon he [the chief ] struck the
boy on the neck with his bow that he lay for dead, and willed
us to follow him.

Who brought us into a great field, where we found fresh
water. He bade us sit down about the pond and drink ; and
he, with his company, would go, in the mean space, to kill
five or six deer, and bring them us.

We tarried there till three o’clock, but they came not.
There one of our company, whose name was John Cooke,
with four others, departed from us into a grove to seek
relief ; where presently they were taken by the Indians and
stripped as naked as ever they were born ; and so returned.

Then we divided ourselves into two parts ; half to
Anthony Goddard, and the rest to James Collier : and
thus severally we sought for Panuco.

Anthony Goddard, with his company, bade us farewell.
They passed a river, where the Indians robbed many of them
of their clothes; and so passing on their way, came to a stony
hill where they stayed.

James Collier with his company, that day, passed the
same river, and were also robbed, and one of them slain by
chance.

We came that night, unto the hill where Anthony

From Tampico to Mexico. 233

Goddard and his company rested. There we remained till
morning. Then we marched, all together, from thence, enter¬
ing between two groves, where the Indians robbed us of all
our clothes, and left us naked. They hurt many, and killed
eight of us.

Three days after, we came to another river. There, the
Indians showed us the way to Panuco, and so left us.

We passed the river into the wilderness, where we made
wreaths of green grass ; which we wound about our bodies to
keep us from the sun and gnats [mosquitoes] of that country.

We travelled there seven days and seven nights before we
came to Panuco, feed on nothing but roots and guavas, a
fruit like figs.

At our coming to the river of Panuco, two Spanish horse¬
men came over unto us in a canoe.

They asked us, “ How long we had been in the wilderness,
and where our General was ? ” for they knew us to be of the
company that had fought with their countrymen.

We told them, “ Seven days and seven nights; and for lack
of victuals, our General set us on shore : and he was gone
away with his ships.”

They returned to their Governor, who s$ent them with five
canoes to bring us all over.

Which done, they set us in array; where a hundred horse¬
men with their lances came forcibly upon us ; but they did
not hurt us.

They carried us prisoners to Panuco [or rather Tampico , the
town near the river Panuco ], where we remained one night.

In the river of Panuco, there is a fish like a calf. The
Spaniards call it a Mallatin. He hath a stone in his head,
which the Indians use for the disease of the colick. In the
night he cometh on land, and eateth grass. I have eaten
of it, and it eateth not much unlike to bacon.

From thence, we were sent to Mexico, which is ninety
leagues from Panuco.

In our way thither, twenty leagues from the seaside, I did
see white crabs running up and down the sands. I have
eaten of them, and they be very good meat.

There groweth a fruit which the Spaniards call Avocottes .
It is proportioned like an egg, and as black as a coal, having
a stone in it : and it is an excellent good fruit.

234 Kind treatment at Mexico.

There also groweth a strange tree, which they call Magueis
[Agave]. It serveth them to many uses. Below, by the
root, they make a hole, whereat they do take out of it,
twice every day, a certain kind of liquor, which they seeth in
a great kettle till the third part of it be consumed, and that
it wax thick. It is as sweet as any honey, and they do eat it.
Within twenty days after that they have taken all the liquor
from it, it withereth, and they cut it down and use it as we
use our hemp here in England. Which done, they convert
it to many uses. Of some part, they make mantles, ropes
and thread ; of the ends, they make needles to sew their
saddles, panels [cloths], and other furniture for their horses;
of the rest, they make tiles to cover their houses : and they
put it to many other purposes.

And thus we came to Mexico, which is seven or eight
miles [round] about, seated in a great fen, environed with
four hills. It hath but two ways of entrance ; and is full of
creeks, in the which, in their canoes, they pass from place
to place and to the islands there within.

In the Indies, ordinarily three times a year, be wonderful
earthquakes, which put the people in great fear and danger.
During the time of two years that I was in Mexico, I saw
them six times. When they come, they throw down trees,
houses, and churches.

There is a city, twenty-five leagues from Mexico, called
Tlaxcallan, which is inhabited with a 100,000 Indians. They
go in white shirts, linen breeches, and long mantles ; and the
women wear about them a garment much like unto a flannel
petticoat.

The King’s Palace was the first place that we were
brought unto in Mexico ; where, without [on the outside of
which], we were willed to sit down.

Much people, men, women, and children, came wondering
about us. Many lamented our misery.

Some of their clergy asked us, “ If we were Christians ? ”
We said, “We praised GOD, we were as good Christians as
they!”

They asked, “ How they might know that ? ”

We said, “ By our confessions.”

Fe^°ir59?'] English beat their masters at Tescuco. 235

From thence, we were carried in a canoe to a tanner’s
house, which standeth a little from the city.

The next morning, two friars and two priests came thither
to us, and willed us “ to bless ourselves, and say our
prayers in the Latin tongue, that they might understand us.”
Many of our company did so.

Whereupon, they returned to the Viceroy, and told him
that “ We were good Christians ! and that they liked us well.”

Then they brought us much relief, with clothes. Our
sick men were sent to their hospitals; where many were
cured, and many died.

From the tanner’s house, we were led to a gentleman’s
place ; where, upon pain of death, we were charged to abide,
and not to come into the city. Thither, we had all things
necessary brought us. On Sundays and holidays, much
people came, and brought us great relief.

The Viceroy practised [endeavoured] to hang us, and
caused a pair of new gallows to be set up, to have executed
us ; whereunto the noblemen of the country would not
consent, but prayed him to stay until the Ship of Advice
brought news from the King of Spain, what should be done
with us: for they said, “ They could not find anything by us,
whereby they might lawfully put us to death.”

The Viceroy then commanded us to be sent to an island
thereby, and he sent for the Bishop of Mexico : who sent
four priests to the island to examine and confess us ; who
said, “The Viceroy would [wished to] burn us.”

When we were examined and confessed, according to the
laws of the country ; they returned to the Bishop, and told
him that “ We were very good Christians ! ” The Bishop
certified the Viceroy of our examinations and confessions ;
and said that “We were good Christians! therefore he
would not meddle with us.”

Then the Viceroy sent for our Master [i.e., of the Jesus],
R. Barret ; whom he kept prisoner in his Palace until the
Fleet was departed for Spain. The rest of us he sent to a
town seven leagues from Mexico, called Tescuco, to card
wool among the Indian slaves : which drudgery we disdained,
and concluded to beat our masters ; and so we did. Where¬
fore they sent to the Viceroy, desiring him “for GOD’s sake

236 Service in the Spanish homeward fleet,

and our Lady’s ! to send for us ; for they would not keep us
any longer.” They said that “ We were devils, and no men.”

The Viceroy sent for us, and imprisoned us in a house in
Mexico. From thence, he sent Anthony Goddard and
some others of our company with him, into Spain ; with
Lucon, the General [i.e.} Admiral] that took us [fought us at
San Juan de Ulua].

The rest of [bulk of] us [i.e., the six men and the boy named on
the next page . For the English captives that remained behind ,
see pp. 202, 204-205, etc.] stayed in Mexico two years after;
and then were sent prisoners into Spain, with Don Juan DE
Velasco de Vare, Admiral and General of the Spanish Fleet.

He carried with him, in his ship, to be presented to the
King of Spain, the anatomy [skeleton] of a giant which was sent
from China, to the Viceroy Don Martin Henriquez at
Mexico, to be sent to the King of Spain. It did appear by
the anatomy, that he was of a monstrous size. The skull of
his head was nearfly] as big as half a bushel. His neck
bones, shoulder plates, arm bones, and all other lineaments
of his other parts were huge and monstrous to behold. The
shank of his leg, from the ankle to the knee, was as long as from
any man’s ankle up to his waist; and of bigness accordingly.

At this time, and in this ship, were also sent two chests
full of earth with ginger growing in them ; which were also
sent from China, to be sent to the King of Spain. The ginger
runneth in the ground like liquorice. The blades grow out of
it in length and proportion like unto the blades of wild garlic ;
which they cut every fifteen days. They use [are accustomed] to
water them twice a day, as we do our herbs here in England.

They put the blades in their pottage, and use them in their
other meats ; whose excellent savour and taste is very
delightful, and procureth a good appetite.

When [in 1570] we were shipped in the Port of San
Juan de Ulua, the General called our Master, Robert
Barret, and us with him, into his cabin, and asked us, “ If we
would fight against Englishmen, if we met them at the sea ? ”

We said, “ We would not fight against our Crown; but if
we met with any others, we would do what we were able.”

He said, “ If we had said otherwise, he would not have

FeS°ir59i.‘] Hortop and Barret save the Fleet. 237

believed us ! and for that, we should be the better used, and
have allowance as other men had.” And he gave a charge
to every one of us, according unto our knowledge. Robert
Barret was placed with the Pilot ; I was put in the Gunner’s
room [i.e,, in the office of a Gunner ] ; William Cawse with
the Boatswain, John Beare with the Quarter Masters,
Edward Rider and Geoffrey Giles with the ordinary
Mariners, Richard the Master’s boy, attended on him and
the Pilot.

Shortly after, we departed from the port of San Juan
de Ulua, with all the Fleet of Spain, for the port called
Havana. We were twenty-six days sailing thither.

There we came in, anchored, took in fresh water, and
stayed sixteen days for the Fleet of Nombre de Dios ; which
is the Fleet that brings the treasure from Peru. The General
[Admiral] of that Fleet was called Diego Flores de Valdez.

After his coming, when he had watered his ships, both the
Fleets joined in one : and Don Juan de Velasco de Varre
was, for the first fifteen days, General of both the Fleets.

Turning through the Channel of Bahama, his Pilot had
like to have cast away all the Fleet upon the Cape, called
Canaveral [on the West coast of Florida] : which was prevented
by me, Job Hortop, and our Master, Robert Barret.

For I, being in the second watch, escried land; and called
to Robert Barret, bidding him “ to look overboard ! for I
saw land under the lee bow of the ship.” He called to the
Boatswain, and bid him let fly the foresail sheet, and lay the
helm upon the lee, and cast the ship about.

When we were cast about, we were but in seven fathom
water. We shot off a piece, giving advice to the Fleet to
cast about [tack] : and so they did.

For this, we were beloved of the General, and all the
Fleet. The General was in a great rage, and swore, by the
King ! that he would hang his Pilot. For he said that “ twice
before, he had almost cast away the admiral [flagship]”

When it was day, he commanded a piece to be shot off, to
call to Council. The other Admiral in his ship came up to
him, and asked, “ What the matter was ? ”

He said, “ His Pilot had cast away his ship and all the

238 The English plan to escape, at Terceira.

Fleet, had it not been for two of the Englishmen ; and there¬
fore he would hang him ! ”

The other Admiral, with many fair words, persuaded him
to the contrary.

When we came in the height [latitude] of Bermuda, we
discovered a monster in the sea, who shewed himself three
times unto us, from the middle upwards ; in which parts he
was proportioned like a man, of the complexion of a Mulatto
or tawny Indian. The General did command one of his
clerks to put it in writing ; and he certified the King and his
nobles thereof.

Presently after this, for the space of sixteen days, we had
wonderfully] foul weather: and then GOD sent us a fair
wind, until such time, as we discovered the island called
Fayal.

On St. James’s day (25 th July), we made rockets, wheels,
and other fireworks, to make pastime that night, as it is the
order of the Spaniards.

When we came near the land, our Master, Robert
Barret, conferred with us to take the pinnace one night,
when we came near the island called Terceira, to free our¬
selves from the danger and bondage that we were going into :
whereunto we agreed. None had any pinnace astern then,
but our ship ; which gave great courage to our enterprise.
We prepared a bag of bread and a botijo [jar] of water,
which would have served us nine days : and provided our¬
selves to go.

Our Master borrowed a small compass of the Master
Gunner of the ship, who lent it him ; but suspected his
intent, and closely [secretly] made the General privy to it :
who, for a time, dissembled the matter.

In the end, seeing our pretense [design]; he called Robert
Barret, commanding his head to be put in the stocks, and
a great pair of iron bolts on his legs : and the rest of us to
be put in the stocks by the legs.

Then he willed a piece to be shot off and he sent the
pinnace for the other Admiral and all the Captains, Masters,
and Pilots of both Fleets to come aboard of him. He com¬
manded the mainyard to be struck down ; and to put two
pullies, on every yard arm one. The hangman was called,

FeS°irs9?G Detected, they are imprisoned at Seville. 239

and we were willed to confess ourselves : for he swore, “ by
the King ! that he would hang us.”

When the other Admiral and the rest were come aboard,
he called them into his Council chamber ; and told them that
“ he would hang the Master of the Englishmen and all his
company.”

The Admiral, whose name was Diego Flores de Valdez,
asked him, “ Wherefore ? ”

He said, “ We had determined to rise in the night with
the pinnace, and with a ball of fire work, to set the ship on
fire, and go our ways. Therefore,” said he, “ I will have you,
the Captains, Masters, and Pilots to set your hands unto that :
for I swear, by the King ! that I will hang them S ”

Diego Flores de Valdez answered, “ Neither I, nor the
Captains, Masters, and Pilots will set our hands to that I ”
for, he said, if he had been prisoner as we were, he would
have done the like himself. He counselled him to keep us
fast in prison till he came into Spain ; and then send us to
the Contrataction House in Seville : where, if we had
deserved death, the law would pass on us. For he would
not have it said that in such a Fleet as that was, six men
and a boy should take the pinnace, and go away.

And so he returned to his ship again.

When he was gone, the General came to the mainmast to
us, and swore, “ by the King ! that we should not come out of
the stocks till we came into Spain.”

Within sixteen days after | in August , 1570], we came
over the bars of San Lucar de Barrameda ; and came
up to the Hurcados. Then he put us into a pinnace, [still]
in the stocks ; and sent us prisoners to the Contrataction
House in Seville.

From thence, after one year [i.e.9 in 1571], we brake
prison ; on St. Stephen’s day [26 December , 1571], at night.
Seven of our [then English] company escaped.

Robert Barret, I, Job Hortop, John Emerie, Hum¬
phry Roberts, and John Gilbert were taken, and brought
back to the Contrataction House ; where we remained in the
stocks till Twelftide [6 January, 1572] was passed. Then our
Keeper put up a petition to the Judge of the Contrataction
House, that we “might be sent to the Great Prison House
in Seville ; for that we had broken prison 1 ”

1 40 R. Barret and J. Gilbert burnt in 1573.

Whereupon we were presently led thither, where we re¬
mained one month [till February , 1572] ; and then, from thence
to the Castle of the Inquisition House in Triana, where we
continued one year [till about February , 1573].

Which expired, they brought us out in procession, every
one of us having a candle in his hand, and a coat with St.
Andrew’s Cross on our backs.

They brought us up on a high scaffold, that was set up in
the Place of St. Francis, which is in the chief street of Seville.
There, they set us down on benches, every one in his degree :
and against us, on another scaffold, sat all the Judges and
the Clergy on their benches.

The people wondered, and gazed on us : some pitying our
cases ; others said, “ Burn those heretics ! ”

When we had sat there two hours, we had a sermon made
to us.

After which, one, called Bresinia, Secretary to the Inqui¬
sition, went up into the pulpit, with the process : and called
Robert Barret and John Gilbert, whom two familiars
of the Inquisition brought from the scaffold before the Judges ;
where the Secretary read the sentence, “which was that they
should be burnt ! ” And so they were returned to the scaffold,
and were burnt.

Then I, Job Hortop, and John Bone were called, and
brought to the place, as before : where we heard our sentence,
which was that we should go to the galleys and there row at
the oar’s end, ten years : and then to be brought back to the
Inquisition House, to have the coat with St. Andrew’s Crojs
put on our backs ; and from thence, to go to the everlasting
prison remediless. And so we were returned to the scaffold,
from whence we came.

Thomas Marks and Thomas Ellis were called, and had
sentence to serve in the galleys eight years; and Humphry
Roberts and John Emerie, to serve five years : and so were
returned to the benches on the scaffold, where we sat till
four o’clock in the afternoon.

Then we were led again to the Inquisition House, from
whence we were brought.

The next day, in the morning, Bresinia the Treasurer
came thither to us ; and delivered to every one of us his sen¬
tence in writing.

FeK°i59i.J HORTOP IS TWELVE YEARS IN THE GALLEYS. 24 1

I, with the rest, were sent to the galleys, where we were
chained four and four together. Every man’s daily allowance
was twenty-six ounces of coarse black biscuit and water.
Our clothing for the whole year, two shirts, two pair of
breeches of coarse canvas, a red coat of coarse cloth soon on
and soon off, and a gown of hair with a friar’s hood. Our
lodging was on the bare boards and banks of the galleys.
Our heads and beards were shaven every month.

Hunger, thirst, cold, and stripes, we lacked none ! till our
several times expired.

After the time of twelve years [1573-1585] (for I served
two years above my sentence) I was sent back to the Inqui¬
sition House in Seville : and there, having put on the coat
with St. Andrew’s Cross, I was sent to the everlasting prison
remediless ; where I wore the coat four years [1585-1589],

Then, upon great suit, I had it taken off for 50 ducats
(=£13 15 s.— about £80 now); which Hernando de Soria,
Treasurer of the King’s Mint, lent me.

Whom I [engaged to serve] as a drudge seven years, and
served for it until the month of October last, 1590. [Hortop,
however , only served a short two years, 1589-1590.]

Then, I came from Seville to San Lucar de Barameda :
where I made means to come away in a Flyboat that was
ladened with wines and salt, which were Fleming’s goods ;
the King of Spain’s subjects dwelling in Seville, married to
Spanish women, and sworn to their King.

In this month of October last, departing from San Lucar,
at sea, off the southernmost Cape [C., St. Vincent], we met
an English ship called the Galleon Dudley ; which took the
Fleming, and me out of it : and brought me to Portsmouth,
where they set me on land, the 2nd day of December last
past, 1590.

From thence, I was sent by Master Muns, the Lieutenant
of Portsmouth, with letters to the Right Honourable the
Earl of Sussex; who commanded his Secretary to take my
name and examination, how long I had been out of England,
and with whom I went ; which he did.

And on Christmas Even [24 December , 1590], I took my
leave of his Honour, and came to Redriffe [. Ratcliffe ].

1. Q 4

242 A Summary of sufferings and perils. [kb1^:

The Computation of my Imprisonment .

I suffered imprisonment in Mexico, two years [1568-1570] ;

in the Contrataction House in Seville, one year
[1571]; in the Inquisition House, in Triana, one
year [1572].

I was in the galleys, twelve years [1573-1585]; in the
everlasting prison remediless, with the coat with
St. Andrew’s Cross, on my back, four years
[1585-1589].

And, at liberty, I served as a drudge, Hernando de Soria,
three years [1589-1590].

Which is the full complement of twenty-three years?*

Since my departure from England, until this time of my
return ; I was five times in great danger of death, besides
the many perils I was in, in the galleys.

First, in the port of San Juan de Ulua; where I was on
shore \i.e., on the little island ] with many others of our
company : which were all slain, saving I and two others,
that by swimming got aboard the Jesus of Lubeck.

Secondly, when we were robbed by the wild Indians.

Thirdly, after we came to Mexico, the Viceroy would
have hanged us.

Fourthly, because he could not have his mind to hang us ;
he would have burnt us.

Fifthly, the General that brought us into Spain, would have
hanged us at sea.

Thus having truly set down unto you, my travels, misery
and dangers endured the space of twenty-three years, I end.

* The exact time from the landing near Tampico, on 8th October,
1568, to Hortop’s landing at Portsmouth, on 2nd December, 1590, was
a little over Twenty-two years.

Thomas Sanders.

The unfortunate V oyage of the Jesus
to Tripoli , in 1584.

[This Narrative was entered at Stationers’ Hail on 31st of March 1587 ( Transcript , Ere., ii.
467. Ed. 1875) as a distinct publication under the title of A most lamentable Voyage made into
Turkey, Ere. ; reprint in Hakluyi ’s Voyages, 1589.]

The voyage made to Tripoli in Barbary, in the year 1584,
with a ship called the Jesus ; wherein the adventures and
distresses of some Englishmen are truly reported, and
other necessary circumstances observed.

244 The first M aster & Purser are drowned. [jVIarch 1587.

His voyage was set forth [chartered] by the
right worshipful Sir Edward Osborne,
Knight, Chief Merchant of all the “ Turkey
Company,” and one Master Richard
Stapers; the ship being of the burden
of 100 tons, called the Jesus. She was
built at Farmne [ ? Fareham ], a river by
Portsmouth. The owners were Master
Thomas Thomson, Nicholas Carnabie, and John Gilman,
The Master (under GOD) was one Zaccheus Hellier of
Blackwall, and his Mate was one Richard Morris of that
place. Their Pilot was one Anthony Jerado, a Frenchman
of the province of Marseilles. The Purser was one William
Thomson, our owner’s son. The Merchants’ Factors [super¬
cargoes] were Romaine Sonnings a Frenchman, and Richard
Skegs servant unto the said Master Stapers.

The owners were bound unto the merchants by charterparty
thereupon, in 1000 marks [ = £333, or in present value about
£2000], that the said ship, by GOD’s permission, should go
for Tripoli in Barbary : that is to say, first from Portsmouth
to Newhaven [Havre] in Normandy; from thence to San Lucar
de Barrameda in Andalusia; and from thence to Tripoli, which
is in the east part of [the northern shore ofj Africa ; and so to
return unto London.

But here ought every man to note and consider the works
of our GOD ; that, many times, what man doth determine,
GOD doth disappoint. The said Master having some occa¬
sion to goto Farmne, took with him the Pilot and the Purser;
and returning again, by means of a perry [gust] of wind the
boat, wherein they were, was drowned with the said Master,
Purser, and all the company ; excepting the said Pilot, who
by experience in swimming saved himself. These were the
beginnings of our sorrows.

After which, the said Master’s Mate would not proceed in
that voyage ; and the owner hearing of this misfortune, and
the unwillingness of the Master’s Mate, did send down one
Richard Deimond, and shipped him for Master; who did
choose for his Mate one Andrew Dier, and so the said ship

Mafcahdiesr8S;.] The second Master dies at Havre 245

departed on her voyage accordingly. That is to say, about
the 16th of October 1583, she made sail from Portsmouth,
and the 18th day then next following, she arrived in Newhaven
[Havre] ; where our said last Master, Deimond, by a surfeit,
died.

The Factors then appointed the said Andrew Dier, being
then Master’s Mate, to be their Master for that voyage ; who
did choose to be his Mates, the two Quarter Masters of the
same ship, to wit, Peter Austin and Shillabey, and for
Purser was shipped one Richard Burges.

Afterwards, about the 8th day of November, we made sail
forward, and by force of weather we were driven back again
into Portsmouth ; where we refreshed ourselves with victuals
and other necessaries : and then the wind came fair.

About the 29th day then next following, we departed thence ;
and the 1st day of December, by means of a contrary wind,
we were driven into Plymouth.

The 18th day then next following, we made southward
again, and by force of weather we were driven into Falmouth ;
where we remained until the 1st day of January [1584]. At
which time the wind coming fair, we departed thence ; and
about the 20th day of the said month we arrived safely at
San Lucar.

About the 9th day of March next following, we made sail
from thence ; and about the 18th day of the same month, we
came to Tripoli in Barbary : where we were very well enter¬
tained by the King of that country, and also of the commons

[ people ] .

The commodity of that place is sweet oils. The King
there is a merchant, and the rather (willing to prefer himself
before his commons) requested our said Factors to traffic with
him ; and promised them that if they should take his oils at his
own price, they should pay no manner of custom [export duty] :
and they took of him certain tuns of oils. Afterward per¬
ceiving that they might have far better cheap notwithstanding
the free custom, they desired the King to licence them to
take the oils at the pleasure of his commons, for that his
price did exceed theirs: whereunto the King would not agree,
but was rather contented to abate his price, insomuch that
the Factors bought all their oils of the King, custom free, and
so laded the same aboard.

246 S O N N I N G S CHEATS DlCKENSON.

In the mean time there came to that place, one Miles
Dickenson, in a ship of Bristol ; who, together with our said
Factors, took a house to themselves there. Our French
Factor, Romaine Sonnings desired to buy a commodity in
the market; and wanting money, desired the said Miles
Dickenson to lend him an hundred chikinos [shekins] until
he came to his lodging : which he did. Afterwards the same
Sonnings met with Miles Dickenson in the street, and
delivered him money bound up in a napkin, saying, “ Master
Dickenson, there is the money I borrowed of you 1” and so
thanked him for the same. He doubted nothing less than
falsehood, which is seldom known among merchants, and
specially being together in one house ; and is the more
detestable between Christians, they being in Turkey among
the heathen.

The said Dickenson did not tell [count] the money
presently [1 immediately ], until he came to his lodging; and
then finding nine chikinos lacking of his hundred, which
was about £% {—£ 20 in present value), for that every chikino
is worth seven shillings of English money; he came to the said
Romaine Sonnings, and delivered him his handkerchief, and
asked him, “ How many chikinos he had delivered him ? ”
Sonnings answered, “ An hundred.” Dickenson said,
“ No ! ” And so they protested, and swore on both parts.
But in the end, the said Romaine Sonnings did swear
deeply, with detestable oaths and curses; and prayed GOD
that He might show His works on him that others might
take example thereby, and that he might be hanged
like a dog, and never come into England again; if he
did not deliver into the said Dickenson a hundred
chikinos.

And here, behold a notable example for all blasphemers,
cursers, and swearers ! how GOD rewarded him accordingly.
For many times it cometh to pass that GOD showeth His
miracles upon such monstrous blasphemers, to the example
of others ; as now hereafter you shall hear what befel to this
Romaine Sonnings.

There was a man in the said town, a pledge; whose name
was Patrone Norado; who, the year before, had done this
Sonnings some pleasure there. The foresaid Patrone

M Jchdi58S7.] SONNINGS BRINGS NORADO ON BOARD 247

Norado was indebted unto a Turk of that town in the sum of
450 crowns { — about £ 130, or in present value about £1,000) for
certain goods sent by him into Christendom in a ship of his
own, and by his own brother ; and he himself remained in
Tripoli as a pledge until his said brother’s return : and, as
the report went there, after his brother’s arrival in Chris¬
tendom, he came among lewd company, and lost his brother’s
said ship and goods at dice ; and never returned unto him
again.

The said Patrone Norado— being void of all hope, and
finding now opportunity — consulted with the said Sonnings
for to swim a seaboard the islands, and the ship being then
out of danger, should take him in (as after was confessed) ; and
so to go to Toulon, in the Province of Marseilles, with this
Patrone Norado, and there to take in the rest of his lading.

The ship being ready the 1st day of May [1584], and
having her sails all aboard ; our said Factors took their leave
of the King, who very courteously bade them farewell : and
when they came aboard, they commanded the Master and the
company hastily to get out the ship. The Master answered
that it was impossible, for that the wind was contrary and
overblowed: and he required us upon forfeiture of our bonds,
that we should do our endeavour to get her forth. Then
went we to warp out the ship. Presently [immediately] the
King sent a boat aboard of us, with three men in her, com¬
manding the said Sonnings to come ashore. At whose
coming, the King demanded of him custom for the oils.
Sonnings answered him, “ that His Highness had promised
to deliver them custom free ! ” But notwithstanding, the King
weighed not his said promise, and— as an infidel that had not
the fear of GOD before his eyes ; nor regard for his word,
albeit he was a King — he caused the said Sonnings to pay
the custom to the uttermost penny : and afterwards willed him
to make haste away, saying, “ that the Janissaries would
have the oil ashore again.”

These Janissaries are soldiers there, under the Great
Turk ; and their power is above the King’s.

So the said Factor departed from the King, and came to the
water side, and called for a boat to come aboard. He brought
with him the foresaid Patrone Norado. The company
inquisitive to know what man that was, Sonnings answered,

248 T he Turks fire at the Jesus.

that he was his countryman, as passenger. “ I pray GOD,”
said the company, “ that we come not into trouble by this
man.” Then said Sonnings angrily, “ What have you to do
with any matters of mine ? If anything chance otherwise
than well, I must answer for all.”

Now the Turk unto whom the Patrone Norado was in¬
debted, missing him, supposed him to be aboard of our ship ;
presently went unto the King, and told him “that he thought
his pledge Patrone Norado was aboard the English ship : ”
whereupon the King presently sent a boat aboard of us, with
three men in her, commanding the said Sonnings to come
ashore, and not speaking anything as touching the man. He
said, “ He would come presently in his own boat.” But as
soon as they were gone, he willed us to warp forth the
ship ; and said that “ he would see the knaves hanged, before
he would go ashore.”

And when the King saw that he came not ashore, but still
continued warping away the ship, he straight commanded the
gunner of the bulwark to fire three shoots [rounds] without

ball.

Then we came all to the said Sonnings, and asked of him,
“ What was the matter that we were shot at ? ” He said that
“ it was the Janissaries, who would have the oil ashore again,”
and willed us to make haste away.

After that the King had discharged three shots without ball,
he commanded the gunners in the town to do their endeavour
to sink us : but the Turkish gunners could not once strike us.
Wherefore the King sent presently to the bagnio— this bagnio
is the prison where all the captives lay at night — and pro¬
mised that if there were any that could either sink us or else
cause us to come in again, he should have a hundred crowns
( = £30, or in present value over £200) and his liberty. With that,
came forth a Spaniard called Sebastian, who had been an
old servitor in Flanders; and he said, that “ upon the per¬
formance of that promise, he would undertake either to sink us
or to cause us to come in again ; and thereto he would gage his
life.” At the first shot, he split ourrudder’s head in pieces; the
second shot, he strake us under water ; and with the third
shot, he shot us through the foremast with a culvering shot.
Thus he having rent both our rudder and mast, and shot us
under water, we were enforced to go in again.

All the Crew are made Slaves 249

This Sebastian, for all his diligence herein, had neither
his liberty, nor a hundred crowns, so promised by the King ;
but after his service done, was committed again to prison.
Whereby may appear the regard that a Turk or infidel hath
of his word, although he be able to perform it : yea more,
though he be a King.

Then our Merchants [i.e.9 Factors] seeing no remedy; they
together with five of our company went ashore. Then they
ceased shooting. They shot unto us in the whole, nine and
thirty shots ; without the hurt of any man.

And when our Merchants came ashore, the King com¬
manded presently that they, with the rest of our company
that were with them, should be chained four and four to an
hundredweight of iron. When we came in with the ship, there
came presently above a hundred Turks aboard of us. They
searched us, and stript our very clothes from our backs,
brake open our chests, and made a spoil of all that we had.

The Christian caitiffs [renegadoes] likewise that came aboard
us made spoil of our goods, and used us as ill as the Turks
did.

And our Master’s Mate having a “ Geneva Bible ” in his
hand ; there came the King’s Chief Gunner, and took it from
him. The Master’s Mate showed me of it, and I, having the
language, went to the King’s Treasurer; and told him of it,
saying, “ that since it was the will of GOD that we should
fall into their hands; yet that they should grant us to use our
consciences to our own discretion, as they suffered the
Spaniards and other nations to use theirs.” He granted it
us. Then I told him that “ the Master Gunner had taken
away a Bible from one of our men.” The Treasurer went
presently, and commanded him to deliver up the Bible again :
which he did.

But within a little while after, he took it from the man
again ; and I showed the Treasurer of it, and he commanded
him to deliver it again, saying, “ Thou villain ! wilt thou turn
to Christianity again ? ” For he was renegado ; which is one
that first was a Christian, and afterwards became a Turk.
So he delivered me the Bible a second time.

And then I having it in my hand, the Gunner came to me,
and spake these words, saying, “ Thou dog ! I will have the
book in despite of thee : ” and took it from me, saying, “ If

250 A STRANGE STRUGGLE FOR A BlBLE.

thou tell the King’s Treasurer of it any more, by Mahomet ! I
will be revenged of thee ! ” Notwithstanding, I went the
third time unto the King’s Treasurer, and told him of it. He
came with me, saying thus unto the Gunner, “ By the head
of the Great Turk, if thou take it from him again; thou shalt
have an hundred bastinados ! ” Forthwith he delivered me
the book, saying, “ He had not the value of a pin of the spoil
of the ship ! ” which was the better for him, as hereafter you
shall hear. For there was none, whether Christian or Turk,
that took the value of a pennyworth of our goods from us,
but perished both body and goods within seventeen months
following ; as hereafter shall plainly appear.

Then came the Guardian Pasha, which is the Keeper of
the King’s captives, to fetch us all ashore. Then I, remem¬
bering the miserable estate of the poor distressed captives in
the time of their bondage to those infidels, went to mine own
chest, and took out thereof a jar of oil and filled a basket full
of white rusk to carry ashore with me ; but before I came to
the bagnio , the Turkish boys had taken away almost all my
bread ; and the Keeper said, “ Deliver me the jar of oil, and
and when thou comest to the bagnio , thou shalt have it
again ! ” but I never had it of him any more.

But when I came to the bagnio , and saw our Merchants
and all the rest of our company in chains ; and we all ready
to receive the same reward : whose heart in the world is
there so hard, but would have pitied our course ? hearing or
seeing the lamentable greeting there was betwixt us.

All this happened the ist of May 1584.

And the 2nd day of the same month, the King with his
Council [Divan] sate in judgement upon us. The first that
were had forth to be arraigned were the Factors and the
Master. The King asked them, “ Wherefore came they not
ashore when he sent for them ? ” Romaine Sonnings
answered, that “though he were King on shore, and might
command there ; so was he as touching those that were
under him,” and therefore said, “ if there be any offence, the
fault is wholly in myself, and in no other.” Then forthwith
the King gave judgement that the said Romaine Sonnings
should be hanged over the north-east bulwark [rampart], from
whence he conveyed the forenamed Patrone Norado.

Mafchts?/.] Dier and Sonnings are hanged. 251

Then he called for our Master, Andrew Dier, and used
few words to him ; and so condemned him to be hanged over
the walls of the westermost bulwark. Then fell our other
Factor, named Richard Skegs, upon his knees before the
King, and said, “ I beseech your Highness either to pardon
our Master, or else suffer me to die for him. For he is igno¬
rant of this cause.’* Then the people of that country
favouring the said Richard Skegs, besought the King to
pardon them both. Then the King spake these words,
“ Behold, for thy sake, I pardon the Master ! ” Then pre¬
sently the Turks shouted, and cried, saying, “ Away with the
Master from the presence of the King ! ” Then he came into
the bagnio where we were, and told us what had happened :
and we all rejoiced at the good hap of Master Skegs ; that
he was saved, and our Master for his sake.

But afterwards our joy was turned to double sorrow, for
in the mean time the King’s mind was altered, for that
one of his Council had advised him that unless the Master
died also, by the law they could not confiscate the ship nor
goods, nor captive [enslave] any of the men. Whereupon the
King sent for our Master again, and gave him another judge¬
ment, after his pardon for one cause ; which was that he
should be hanged.

Here all true Christians may see what trust a Christian
man may put in an infidel’s promise ; who, being a King,
pardoned a man now, as you have heard, and within an
hour after hanged him for the same cause before a whole
multitude : and also promised our Factors their oils custom
free, and at their going away made them pay the uttermost
penny for the custom thereof.

When that Romaine Sonnings saw no remedy but that he
should die ; he protested to turn Turk, hoping thereby to
have saved his life. Then said the Turk, “ If thou wilt turn
Turk, speak the words that thereunto belong ! ” And he did
so. Then said they unto him, “ Now thou shalt die in the
faith of a Turk ! ” And so he did, as the Turks reported that
were at his execution.

The forenamed Patrone Norado, whereas before he had
liberty, and did nothing; he was then condemned to be a
slave perpetually ; unless there were payment made of the
foresaid money.

252 Sanders’s first experience as a Slave.

Then the King condemned us all — who were in number
six and twenty ; of the which two were hanged, as you have
heard, and one died the first day we came on shore by the
visitation of Almighty GOD — the other three and twenty
he condemned to be slaves perpetually unto the Great Turk;
and the ship and goods were confiscated to the use of the
Great Turk.

Then we all fell down upon our knees, giving GOD thanks
for this sorrowful visitation, and giving ourselves wholly to
the almighty power of GOD ; unto whom all secrets are
known, that He of His goodness would vouchsafe to look
upon us.

Here, may all true Christian hearts see the wonderful
works of GOD showed upon such infidels, blasphemers, and
runnagate Christians ! and so you shall read in the end of
this book [narrative], of the like upon the unfaithful King and
all his children, and upon as many as took any portion of the
said goods.

But first to show our miserable bondage and slavery, and
unto what small pittance we were tied. Every five men had
allowance of but five Aspers of bread in a day, which are but
two pence English : and our lodging was to lie on the bare
boards, with a very simple cape to cover us. We were also
forcibly and most violently shaven, head and beard.

Within three days after [on 5th May 1584], I and six more
of my fellows together with four score Italians and Spaniards,
were sent forth in a galliot to take a Greek Carmosel,
which came into Arabia [?] to steal negroes ; and went out of
Tripoli unto that place, which was 240 leagues thence. We
were chained three and three to an oar, and we rowed naked
above the girdle. The Boatswain of the galley walked abaft
the mast, and his Mate afore the mast ; and each of them
with a thong in their hands. When their devilish choler
rose, they would strike the Christians for no cause. They
allowed us but half a pound of bread a man in a day, with¬
out any other kind of sustenance, water excepted.

And when we came to the place where we saw the Carmosel,
we were not suffered to have either needle, bodkin, knife, or
any other instrument about us ; nor at any other time in the
night, upon pain of one hundred bastinados. We were then

Marches?;.] Fight with a Greek Carmosel. 253

also cruelly manacled in such sort that we could not put our
hands the length of one foot asunder the one from the other :
and every night, they searched our chains three times, to see
if they were fast rivetted.

We continued fight with the Carmosel three hours, and
then we took it. We lost but two men in that fight, but
there were slain of the Greeks, five ; and fourteen were
cruelly hurt. They that were sound were presently made
slaves, and chained to the oars : and within fifteen days after
we returned again to Tripoli ; and then we were put to all
manner of slavery.

I was put to hew stones, others to carry stones, some to
draw the cart with earth, some to make mortar, and some to
draw stones : for at that time the Turks builded a church
[mosque]. Thus we were put to all kind of slavery that was
to be done.

In the time of our being there, the Moors that are the
husbandmen of the country, rebelled against the King,
because he would have constrained them to pay greater
tribute than heretofore they had done : so that the soldiers
of Tripoli marched forth from the town to have joined battle
against the Moors for their rebellion. The King sent with them
four pieces of ordnance ; which were drawn by the captives
twenty miles into the country after them. At the sight
thereof, the Moors fled : and then the captives returned back
again.

Then I and certain Christians more were sent twelve
miles into the country, with a cart to load timber ; and we
returned the same day.

Now the King had eighteen captives which three times a
week went to fetch wood thirty miles from the town ; and
on a time he appointed me for one of the eighteen. We
departed at eight o’clock in the night, and upon the way as
we rode upon the camels, I demanded of one of our company,
who did direct us the way? He said, there was a Moor in
our company which was our guide. I demanded of them
how Tripoli and the wood bare one off the other ? He said,
“ East-north-east, and west-south-west.”

At midnight or thereabouts, as I was riding on my camel,
I fell asleep ; and the guide and all the rest rode away from

254 Sanders’s peril in the Desert. [JaSss?:

me, not thinking but that I had been among them. When I
awoke, finding myself alone, I durst not call nor halloa, for
fear lest the wild Moors should hear me ; because they hold
this opinion that in killing a Christian they do GOD good
service. Musing with myself what were best for me to do. if
I should go forth and the wild Moors should hap to meet with
me, they would kill me ; and on the other side, if I should
return back to Tripoli without any wood or company, I should
be most miserably used therefore : of the two evils, rather
did I go forth to the losing of my life, than to turn back and
trust to their mercy, fearing to be used as before I had seen
others. Understanding before by some of my company how
Tripoli and the said wood did lie one off another, by the north
star I went forth at adventure ; and, as GOD would have it, I
came right to the place where they were, even about an hour
before day. There all together we rested, and gave our
camels provender ; and as soon as the day appeared, we rode
all into the wood. I seeing no wood here, but a stick here
and a stick there, about the bigness of a man’s arm, growing
in the sand ; it caused me to marvel how so many camels
should be laden in that place. The wood was Juniper. We
needed no axe nor edge tool to cut it, but pluckt it up by
strength of hands, roots and all ; which a man might easily
do : and so gathered it together a little at one place, and so
at another; and laded our camels, and came home about
seven o’clock that night following. And because I fell lame,
and my camel was tired, I left my wood in the way.

There was in Tripoli, at that time, a Venetian whose name
was Benedetto Venetiano, and seventeen captives more of
his company; who ran away from Tripoli in a boat, and
came in sight of an island called Malta, which lieth forty
leagues right north from Tripoli. Being within a mile of
the shore, and with very fair weather, one of their company
said, In dispetto de DIO adesso venio a pilliar terra ; which is
as much as to say, “ In the despite of GOD, I shall now
fetch the shore : ” and presently there arose a mighty storm
with thunder and rain, and the wind at north. Their boat
being very small, there were enforced to bear up room, and
to shear right afore the wind over against the coast of
Barbary from whence they came ; and rowing up and down

Ma?chdieS87.] The recapture of Benedetto &c. 255

the coast, their victuals being spent, the twenty-first day
after their departure they were enforced through want of food
to come ashore, thinking to have stolen some sheep. But
the Moors of the country, perceiving their intent, very craftily
gathered together a threescore horsemen, and hid themselves
behind a sandy hill ; and when the Christians were come all
ashore, and had passed up half a mile into the country ; the
Moors rode betwixt them and their boat, and some of them
pursued the Christians. So they were all taken and brought
to Tripoli, from whence they had before escaped. Presently
the King commanded that the foresaid Benedetto with one
more of his company should lose their ears, and the rest to
be most cruelly beaten ; which was presently done.

This King had a son, who was a ruler in an island called
Jerbah, whereunto arrived an English ship called the Green
Dragon , of the which was Master one Master Blonket : who
had a very unhappy boy in that ship ; and understanding
that whosoever would turn Turk should be well entertained
of the King’s son, this boy did run ashore, and voluntarily
turned Turk.

Shortly after [May 1584], the King’s son came to Tripoli
to visit his father; and seeing our company, he greatly fancied
Richard Burges our Purser, and James Smith. They were
both young men. Therefore he was very desirous to have
them to turn Turks : but they would not yield to his desire,
saying, “ We are your father’s slaves ; and as slaves, we will
serve him.” Then his father the King sent for them, and
asked them if they would turn Turk? They said, “ If it
please your Highness, Christians we were born, and so we
will remain ; ” and beseeched the King that they might not
be enforced thereunto. The King had there before, in his
house, a son of a Yeoman of our Queen’s Guard ; whom the
King’s son had enforced to turn Turk. His name was John
Nelson. Him, the King caused to be brought to these
young men, and then said unto them, “ Will you not bear
this your countryman company, and be Turk as he is ? ”
And they said, “ They would not yield thereunto during
life.”

But it fell out, that within a month after, the King’s son
went home to Jerbah again, being six score miles from

256 Sanders writes home &c., for help. [iL^s*

Tripoli; and carried our two foresaid young men with him,
which were Richard Burges and James Smith. After
their departure from us, they sent us a letter signifying that
there was no violence showed to them as yet. But within
three days after, they were violently used : for that the
King’s son demanded of them again, “ If that they would
turn Turk ? ” Then answered Richard Burges, “ A
Christian I am, and so will I remain.” Then the King’s son
very angrily said unto him, “ By Mahomet ! thou shalt pre¬
sently [instantly] be made Turk ! ” Then called he for his
men, and commanded them to make him Turk ; and they did
so, and circumcised him : and would have had him speak
the words that thereunto belonged ; but he answered them
stoutly that he would not, and although they had put on
him the habit of a Turk; “Yet,” said he, “a Christian I
was born, and so I will remain ; though you force me to do
otherwise.” And then he called for the other, and com¬
manded him to be made Turk perforce also; but he was
very strong, for it was as much as eight of the King’s son’s
men could do to hold him ; so in the end they circumcised
him, and made him Turk.

Now to pass over a little, and so to show the manner of our
deliverance out of that miserable captivity.

In May [1584] aforesaid, shortly after our apprehension, I
wrote a letter into England unto my father dwelling at
Eavistoke [ Tavistock ] in Devonshire, signifying unto him the
whole state of our calamities ; and I wrote also to Constan¬
tinople to the English Ambassador : both of which letters were
faithfully delivered.

But when my father had received my letter, and understood
the truth of our mishap and the occasion thereof, and
what had happened to the offendors ; he certified the Right
Honourable the Earl of Bedford thereof, who, in short space,
acquainted Her Highness with the whole cause thereof : and
Her Majesty, like a merciful Princess tendering her subjects,
presently took order for our deliverance.

Whereupon the right worshipful Sir Edward Osborne,
Knight, directed his letters [5 th of September 1584] with all
speed to the English Ambassador in Constantinople to procure

Marchdi587.] A COMMISSION SENT TO FREE THEM. 257

our delivery. He obtained the Great Turk’s Commission
[October 1584], and sent it forthwith [January 1585] to
Tripoli by one Master Edward Barton [his Secretary ],
together with [Mahomet Beg] a Justice of the Great Turk’s,
one soldier, another Turk; and a Greek who was his Inter¬
preter, and could speak Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, and
English.

When they came to Tripoli, they were well entertained;
and the first night, they did lie in a captain’s house in the
town. All our company that were in Tripoli came that night
for joy, to Master Barton and the other Commissioners
to see them. Then Master Barton said unto us, “Welcome,
my good countrymen ! ” and lovingly entertained us ; and at
our departure from him, he gave us two shillings, and said,
“ Serve God ! for to-morrow I hope you shall be as free as
ever you were.” We all gave him thanks, and so departed.

The next day in the morning, very early, the King having
intelligence of their coming, sent word to the Keeper that
“ none of the Englishmen,” meaning our company, “ should
go to work.”

Then he sent for Master Barton and the other Commis¬
sioners, and demanded of the said Master Barton his message.
The Justice answered that “the Great Turk my Sovereign
had sent them unto him, signifying that he was informed
that a certain English ship called the Jesus was by him, the
said King, confiscated about twelve months since ; and now
my said Sovereign hath here sent his especial Commission by
us unto you for the deliverance of the said ship and goods ;
and also the free liberty and deliverance of the Englishmen
of the said ship, whom you have taken and kept in captivity.”
And further the same Justice said, “ I am authorised by my
said Sovereign the Great Turk to see it done ; and therefore
I command you by virtue of this Commission presently to
make restitution of the premises or the value thereof.” So
did the Justice deliver unto the King, the Great Turk’s
Commission to the effect aforesaid ; which Commission the
King with all obedience perused.

After the perusing of the same, he forthwith commanded
all the English captives to be brought before him ; and then
willed the Keeper to strike off all our irons. Which done, the
King said, “ You Englishmen 1 for that you did offend the
I- R 4

258 Eleven Survivors are set free. [m^^.

laws of this place : by the same laws therefore, some of your
company were condemned to die, as you know; and you to
be perpetual captives during your lives. Notwithstanding,
seeing it hath pleased my Sovereign Lord the Great Turk to
pardon your said offences, and to give you your freedom and
liberty ; behold, here I make delivery of you to this English
gentleman ! ” So he delivered us all that were there, being
thirteen [or rather eleven] in number, to Master Barton : who
required also those two young men which the King’s son had
taken with him. Then the King answered that “ it was against
their law to deliver them, for that they had turned Turks.”
And touching the ship and goods, the King said that “ he had
sold her; but would make restitution of the value, and as
much of the goods as came unto his hands.” So the King
arose, and went to dinner; and commanded a Jew to go
with Master Barton and the other Commissioners to show
them their lodging, which was a house provided and appointed
them by the said King. And because I had [knew] the Italian
and Spanish tongues, by which most of their traffic in that
country is; Master Barton made me his cater [caterer] to buy
his victuals for him and his company, and delivered me money
needful for the same. Thus were we set at liberty the 28th
day of April 1585.

Now to return to the King’s plagues and punishments:
which Almighty GOD at His will and pleasure, sendeth upon
men, in the sight of the world ; and likewise of the plagues
that befel his children and others aforesaid.

First, when we were made bondmen, being the 2nd day
of May 1584, the King had 300 captives ; and before the
month was expired, there died 150 of them of the plague. And
whereas there were twenty-six men of our company ; of whom
two were hanged, and one died the same day that we were
made bondslaves : that present month there died of the
plague, nine [? ten] more of our company; and other two were
forced to turn Turks, as is before rehearsed.

On the 4th day of June next following, the King lost 150
camels, which were taken from him by the wild Moors.

On the 28th day of the said month of June, one Geoffrey
Maltese, a renegado of Malta, ran away to his country ;
and stole a brigantine which the King had buildedfor to take

Mafchis?;.] The Janissaries kill the King. 259

Christians withal : and carried with him twelve Christians
more, which were the King’s captives.

Afterwards about the 10th day of July next following, the
King rode forth upon the greatest and fairest mare that might
be seen, as white as any swan. He had not ridden forty
paces from his house, but on a sudden the same mare fell
down under him stark dead : and I with six more were
commanded to bury her, skin, shoes, and all; which we
did.

And about three months after our delivery [1 i.e ., July 1585],
Master Barton with all the residue of his company, de¬
parted from Tripoli for Zante, in a vessel called a Settee,
of one Marcus Segoorus who dwelt in Zante. After our
arrival at Zante, we remained fifteen days aboard our vessel
before we could have platego, that is, leave to come ashore ;
because the plague was in that place from whence we came.

About three days after we came ashore, thither came
another Settee of Marseilles bound for Constantinople. Then
did Master Barton and his company, with two more of our
Company, ship themselves as passengers in the same Settee ;
and went to Constantinople.

But the other nine of us that remained in Zante, about
three months after, shipped ourselves in a ship of the said
Marcus Segoorus, which came to Zante, and was bound
for England.

In which three months, the soldiers of Tripoli killed the
said King. Then the King’s son, according to the custom
there, went to Constantinople to surrender up all his father’s
treasure, goods, captives, and concubines unto the Great
Turk: and took with him our said Purser Richard Burges,
and James Smith ; and also the other two Englishmen which
he, the King’s son, had enforced to become Turks, as is afore¬
said.

And they, the said Englishmen, finding now some oppor¬
tunity, concluded with the Christian captives which were
going with them unto Constantinople, being in number about
150, to kill the King’s son and all the Turks which were on
board the galley : and privily the said Englishmen conveyed
unto the said Christian captives weapons for that purpose.

2 6o Surpassing courage of four ENGLisHMEN^M^h1^;

And when they came into the main sea, toward Constanti¬
nople, upon the faithful promise of the said Christian captives,
these four Englishmen leaped suddenly into the crossia, that is,
into the midst of the galley where the cannon lieth, and with
their swords drawn, did fight against all the foresaid Turks :
but for want of help from the said Christian captives, who
falsely brake their promises, the said Master Blonket’s boy
and [John Nelson] the other Englishman were killed; and
the said James Smith and our Purser Richard Burges
were taken, and bound in chains, to be hanged at their
arrival in Constantinople.

And as the LORD’S will was, about two days after,
passing through the Gulf of Venice, at an island called
Cephalonia, they met with two of the Doge of Venice’s
galleys ; which took that galley, and killed the King’s son,
his mother, and all the Turks that were there, 150 in
number. They saved the Christian captives ; and would
have killed the two Englishmen, because they were circum¬
cised and become Turks; had not the other Christian
captives excused them, saying that “they were enforced to
be Turks by the King’s son,” and showed the Venetians also
how they did enterprise at sea to fight all the Turks, and that
their two fellows were slain in that fight. Then the Vene¬
tians saved them ; and they, with all the residue of the said
captives (which were in number 150 or thereabouts), had their
liberty : and the said galley and all the Turks’ treasure was
confiscated to the use of the State of Venice.

From thence, our two Englishmen travelled homeward by
land.

In this mean time, one more of our company died atZante,
and afterwards the other eight shipped themselves at Zante
in a ship of the said Marcus Segoorus, which was bound
for England. Before we departed thence, there arrived the
Ascension and the George Bonaventure of London, in Cepha¬
lonia ; in a harbour there called Argostoli ; whose Merchants
[supercargoes] agreed with the Merchant of our ship, and so
laded all the merchandise of our ship into the said ships of
London ; who took us eight also in as passengers. So we
came home.

And within two months after our arrival at London, our

T. Sanders.
March 1587.J

T HANKSGIVINGS,

261

said Purser Richard Burges and his fellow came home
also.

For all which, we are bound to praise Almighty GOD during
our lives ; and as duty bindeth us, to pray for the preservation
of our most gracious Queen, for the great care Her Majesty
had over us her poor subjects, in seeking and procuring our
deliverance aforesaid; and also for her honourable Privy
Council. And I especially for the prosperity and good estate
of the house of the late deceased the Right Honourable
[Francis Russell] the Earl of Bedford [d. 1585] ; whose
Honour, I must confess, most diligently, at the suit of my
father now departed, travailed herein ; for the which I rest
continually bounden to his ; whose soul, I doubt not, but is
already in the heavens in joy, with the Almighty. Unto which
place, He vouchsafe to bring us all, that for our sins suffered
most vile and shameful death upon the cross : there to live
perpetually, world without end. Amen.

John Chilton.

Travels in Mexico. 1568 — 1585 a.d.

[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]

A notable Discourse of Master John Chilton, touching the
people, manners, mines, cities, riches, forces, and other
memorable things of the West Indias; seen and noted
by himself in the time of his travels, continued in those
parts the space of seventeen or eighteen years.

These travels also refer to Sir John Hawkins’s disaster at San Juan
de Ulua.

264 Chilton’s arrival at Vera Cruz.

N the year of our Lord 1561, in the month of
July, I, John Chilton, went out of this city
of London into Spain ; where I remained for
the space of seven years : and from thence, I
sailed into New Spain, and so travelled there,
and by the South Sea [Pacific] into Peru, the
space of seventeen or eighteen years.

After that time expired, I returned into
Spain; and so, in the year 1586, in the month of July, I
arrived at the foresaid city of London : where perusing the
notes which I had taken in the time of my travel in those
years, I have set down, as followeth.

In the year 1568, in the month of March, being desirous
to see the world, I embarked myself in the Bay of Cadiz, in
Andalusia, in a ship bound for the isles of the Canaries ;
where she took in her lading, and set forth from thence for
the voyage, in the month of June the same year.

Within a month after, we fell with the isle of Santo
Domingo; and from thence, sailing directly to New Spain,
we came into the port of San Juan de Ulua [about two months
before Hawkins's arrival at the same port on September 16, 1568 :
see Vo/. /. pp. 96-8, and the following description probably describes
the island as Sir John found it] : which is a little island stand¬
ing in the sea, about two miles [?] from the land : where the
King maintaineth about 50 soldiers, and Captains, that keep
the forts ; and about 150 Negroes, who, all the year long, are
occupied in carrying stone for building and other uses, and
to help to make fast the ships that come in there with their
cables. There are two Bulwarks [batteries] , at each end of a
wall, that standeth likewise in the said island ; where the
ships use [are accustomed ] to ride, made fast to the said wall
with their cables; so near, that a man may leap ashore.

From this port, I journeyed by land to a town called Vera
Cruz, standing by a river’s side : where all the Factors of the
Spanish merchants dwell, which receive the goods of such
ships as come thither ; and also lade the same with such
treasure and merchandize as they return back into Spain.

J.Chikqn.] -pHE Xlascalan tax of a handful of wheat 265

They are in number, about 400 : who only remain here during
the time that the Spanish Fleet dischargeth and is ladened
again ; which is from the end of August, to the beginning of
April following : and then, for the unwholesomeness of the
place, they depart thence sixteen miles further up within the
country, to a town called Xalapa [see page 213], a very
healthful soil.

There is never any woman delivered of child in this town ;
for so soon as they perceive themselves conceived with child,
they get them up into the country, to avoid the peril of the
infected air: although they use [are accustomed ], every morn¬
ing, to drive through the town, about 2,000 head of cattle, to
take away the ill vapours of the earth.

From Xalapa, seven leagues, I came to another place
named Perota; wherein are certain houses built of straw,
called by the name of Ventz : the inhabitants whereof are
Spaniards, who accustom to harbour such travellers as are
occasioned to journey that way, up into the land. It standeth
in a great wood of pine and cedar trees ; the soil being very
cold, by reason of store of snow, which lieth on the mountains
there, all the year long. There are in that place, an infinite
number of deer, of highness like unto great mules, having
also horns of great length.

From Perota, nineleagues, I came to the fo[u]ntsof Ozumba ;
which fo[u]nts are springs of water issuing out of certain
rocks into the midst of the highway : where likewise are
certain ranges ; and houses for the uses before mentioned.

Eight leagues off, from this place, I came to the City of
Angels [Puebla de los Angeles ], so called by that name, of the
Spaniards ; who inhabit there to the number of 1,000, besides
a great number of Indians. This city standeth in very plain
fields, having near adjoining to it many sumptuous cities:
as, namely, the city of Tlascala, a city of 200,000 Indians,
tributary to the King [of Spain] ; although he exacteth no
other tribute of them than a handful of wheat a piece,
which amounteth to 13,000 hannegas [2,600 English Quarters]
yearly, as appeareth by the King’s Books of Account. And
the reason why he contenteth himself with this tribute only
from them, is because they were the occasion that he took
the city of Mexico : with which, the Tlascalans had war at
the same time that the Spaniards came into the country.

266 The Mexican Indians taxed at 12s. each. [J,?ChiI1^*

The Governor of this city is a Spaniard, called among them
Alcade Major , who administereth chiefest causes of justice,
both unto the Christians and Indians ; referring smaller and
lighter vices, as drunkenness and such like, to the judgement
and discretion of such of the Indians as are chosen, every
year, to rule amongst them, and called by the name of
Alcades.

These Indians [at Puebla de los Angeles ], from fourteen
years old and upwards, pay unto the King for their yearly
tribute one ounce of silver [the Peso = 6s. 8d. (or in present
value 53J.); see pp. 105, 320] and a hannega \^th of an
English Quarter\ of maise, which is valued among them com¬
monly at 12 Rials of Plate [or silver— 6s. (or in present value
48s.)]. The widows among them pay half of this.

The Indians both of this city, and of the rest lying about
Mexico, go clothed with mantles of linen cloth made of cotton
wool, painted throughout with works of divers and fine
colours.

Distant from the City of the Angels, four leagues to the
northward, and fourteen from Mexico ; there is another city
called Cholula, consisting of more than 60,000 Indians,
tributaries : and there dwelleth not above twelve Spaniards
there.

From it, about two leagues, there is another called
Acassingo, of about 5,000 Indians, and eight or twelve
Spaniards; which standeth at the foot of the Volcano of
Mexico [ Popocatepetl J.

There are besides these, three other great cities, the one
named Tepeaca, a very famous city; Huexotzinco, and
Tetzmellocan.

All these, in times past, belonged to the kingdom Tlascala:
and from these cities they bring all their cochineal into Spain.

The distance from the City of the Angels to the city of
Mexico is twenty leagues. This city, Mexico, is the city
of greatest fame in all the Indias : having goodly and
costly houses in it, built all of lime and stone ; and seven
streets in length, and seven in breadth, with rivers running
through every second street, by which they bring their pro¬
visions in canoes.

J’?chiis86.'] First trip to New Biscay in 1569.267

It is situated at the foot of certain hills, which contain in
compass by estimation above twenty leagues, compassing
the said city on the one side ; and a lake, which is fourteen
leagues about, on the other side. Upon which lake, there
are built many notable and sumptuous cities, as the city of
Tescuco : where the Spaniards built six frigates at that time
when they conquered Mexico; and where also Hernando
Cortes made his abode five or six months, in curing of the
sickness of his people, which they had taken at their coming
into the country. There dwell in this city about 60,000
Indians, which pay tribute to the King.

In this city [Mexico] the said Hernando built the finest
Church that ever was built in the Indias ; the name whereof
is St. Peter’s.

After I had continued six months in this city; being
desirous to see farther the countries, I employed [invested]
that which I had, and took my voyage [in 1569] towards the
Provinces of the California : in the which was discovered a
certain country by a Biscayan, whose name was Diego de
Guiara, and called it after the name of his country, New
Biscay ; where I sold my merchandise for exchange of silver,
for there were there certain rich mines discovered by the
aforesaid Biscayan.

Going from Mexico, I directed my voyage towards the
south-west, to certain mines called Tamalxaltepec ; and so
travelled forward, the space of twenty days, through desert
uninhabited places, till I came to the Valley of St. Bar¬
tholomew, which joineth to the province of New Biscay. In
all these places, the Indians are for the most part naked, and
are wild people. Their common armour is bows and arrows.
They use [are accustomed ] to eat up such Christians as they
come by.

At my return to Mexico, I came along by the coast of the
South Sea, through the Province of Zacatula; from thence in
the Province of Coloa : where I employed the silver that I had
in a certain grain growing like an almond, called among the
Indians Cacao [Cocoa beans] which in New Spain is current
for money, to buy things of small value, as fruits, &c. ; fof
they have no small money there ; and in which, also, they pay

268 Chilton loses iooo ducats by Drake. [J?Chi5?“;

the King his tribute. They grind this grain to a powder, and
mingle it with water ; and so is made both bread and drink
to them ; which is a provision of great profit and good
strength.

From thence departing, I came to another province named
Xalisco, and from thence to the port of Navidad which is
sixty-six leagues from Mexico. In which port arrive, always
in the month of April, all the ships that come out of the South
Sea, from China and the Philippines ; and there they lay
their merchandise ashore : the most part whereof is mantles
made of cotton wool, wax, and fine platters gilt made of earth,
and much gold.

The next summer following, being in the year 1570, which
was the first year that the Pope’s Bulls were brought into
the Indias ; I undertook another voyage towards the Province
of Sonsonate, which is in the kingdom of Guatemala ; whither
I carried divers merchandise of Spain, all by land on mules’
backs. The way thitherward, from Mexico, is to the City of
the Angels ; and from thence to another city of Christians,
eighty leagues off, called Guaxaca, in which there dwelt about
fifty Spaniards and many Indians. All the Indians of this
Province pay their tribute in mantles of cotton wool, and
cochineal, whereof there growelh great abundance about this
country.

Near to this place, there lieth a port in the South Sea,
called Aquatulca [Acapulco] : in which there dwelleth not
above three or four Spaniards, with certain Negroes which
the King maintaineth there. In which place, Sir Francis
Drake arrived in the year 1579, in the month of April [see
Vo/. I. pp . 206-8] : where I lost with his being there, about
1,000 ducats * [=£275 —now about £2,200] : which he took
away, with much other of goods of other merchants of Mexico,
from one Franciso Gomes Rangifa, Factor there, for all the
Spanish merchants that then traded in the South Sea. For
from this port, they use to embark all their goods that go for
Peru, and to the kingdom of Honduras.

From Guaxaca, I came to a town named Nixapa, which

* This loss was subsequent to the conclusion of Chilton’s narrative
of his personal adventures ; which ends with his journey to Yucatan.

i* ?Ch 1586*] Hawkins’s brass piece at Tehuantepec. 269

standeth upon certain very high hills in the Province of
Zapatecos, wherein inhabit about the number of twenty
Spaniards by the King of Spain’s commandment, to keep
that country in peace ; for that the Indians are very rebel¬
lious : and for this purpose he bestoweth on them the towns
and cities that be within that Province.

From hence, I went to a city called Tehuantepec, which
is the furthest town to the eastward in all New Spain,
which sometime did belong to [Hernando Cortes] the
Marquis de la Valle : and because it is a very fit port,
standing in the South Sea, the King of Spain, upon a re¬
bellion [!] made by the said Marquis against him, took it from
him, and doth now possess it as his own.

Here, in the year 1572, I saw a piece of ordnance of brass,
called a Demi-Culverin, which came out of a ship called the
Jesus of Lubeck [See VoL I. pp. 93, 101, 115-126], which
Captain Hawkins left in San Juan de Ulua, being in fight
with the Spaniards, in the year 1568, which piece they
afterward carried a hundred leagues by land, over mighty
mountains, to the said city, to be embarked for the Philippines.

Leaving Tehuantepec, I went still along by the South Sea,
about 150 leagues, in the desolate Province of Soconusco : in
which Province there groweth Cacao , which the Christians
carry from thence into New Spain ; for that it will not grow
in any cold country. The Indians of this country pay the
King their tribute in Cacao, giving him 400 Cargas (every
Carge is 2,400 almonds) which Carge is worth in Mexico, 30
pieces of Rials of Plate [15s. {=£6 now)]. They are men of
great riches, and withal very proud : and in all this Province
throughout, there dwell not twenty Christians.

I travelled through another Province called Suchetepec,
and thence to the Province of Guasacapan, in both of which
Provinces are very few people ; the biggest town therein
having not above 200 Indians. The chiefest merchandise
there is Cacao.

Hence, I went to the city of Guatemala, which is the
chief city of all this Kingdom. In this city, do inhabit about
eighty Spaniards : and here the King hath his Governors
and Council, to whom all the people of the kingdom repair
for justice. This city standeth from the coast of the South
Sea, fourteen leagues within the land, and is very rich,

270 Second trip, in 1570-71, to Guatemala,

by reason of the gold that they fetch out of the coast of
Veragua.

From this city, to the Eastward, sixty leagues, hath the
Province of Sonsonate; where I sold the merchandise I
carried out of New Spain. The chiefest city of this Province
is San Salvador, which hath seven leagues from the coast of
the South Sea, and hath a port lying by the sea coast,
called Acaxutla, where the ships arrive with the merchandise
they bring from New Spain ; and from thence, lade back the
Cacao. There dwell there to the number of sixty Spaniards.

From Sonsonate, I travelled to Nicoya, which is the
Kingdom of Nicaragua. In which port, the King buildeth
all the shipping that travel out of the Indies to the Moluccas.

I went forward from thence to Costa Rica, where the
Indians, both men and women, go all naked ; and the land
lieth between Panama and the Kingdom of Guatemala.

And for that the Indians there, live as warriors, I durst
not pass by land : so that here, in a town called San Salvador,
I bestowed that which I carried in anil [indigo] , which is a
kind of thing to dye blue withal, which I carried with me
to the port of Cavallos [see Vol. I. p. 213, at present , called
Puerto Cortes or Cabellos], lying in the Kingdom of Honduras:
which port is a mighty huge river ; and at the coming in
of the one side of it, there lieth a town of little force, without
ordnance or any other strength, having in it houses of straw.
At which town, the Spaniards use yearly, in the month of
August, to unlade four ships which come out of Spain laden
with rich merchandise, and receive in again here, a kind of
merchandise called anil, cochineal (although it be not of such
value as that of New Spain), silver of the mines of Toma
Angua, gold of Nicaragua, hides, and salsaparilla the best in
all the Indies. All which merchandise they return [take back],
and depart from thence always in the month of April following
[Chilton evidently went this voyage in April, 1571], taking their
course by the island of Jamaica : in which island, there dwell
on the west side of it certain Spaniards of no great number.
From this place, they go to Cape St. Antonio ; which is the
uttermost part of the westward of the isle of Cuba.

And from thence, to Havanna, lying hard by ; which is the
chiefest port that the King of Spain hath in all the countries
of the Indies, and of greatest importance. For all the ships

J‘?chii586.'] Honduras, Havanna, and Peru; and back 271

from Peru, Honduras, Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, Jamaica,
and all other places in his Indies, arrive there, on their
return to Spain; for that in this port, they take in victuals
and water, and the most part of their lading. Here they
meet from all the foresaid places, always in the beginning of
May, by the King’s commandment. At the entrance of
this port, it is so narrow that there can scarce come in two
ships together ; although it be above six fathoms deep in
the narrowest place of it.

In the north side of the coming in, there standeth a tower,
in which there watcheth every day a man to descry the sail
of ships which he can see on the sea : and as many as he
discovereth, so many banners he setteth upon the tower,
that the people of the town (which standeth within the port
about a mile from the tower) may understand thereof. [See
Vol. II. p. <p&,.for a similar arrangement at Terceira.\

Under this tower, there lieth a sandy shore, where men
may easily go aland : and by the tower, there runneth a hill
along by the water’s side ; which easily, with small store of
ordnance, subdueth the town and port. The port within is
so large, that there may easily ride a thousand sail of ships,
without anchor or cable : for no wind is able to hurt them.

There inhabit within the town of Havanna, about 300
Spaniards, and about sixty soldiers ; which the King main-
taineth there, for the keeping of a certain castle which he
hath of late erected, which hath planted in it about twelve
pieces of small ordnance. It is compassed round with a small
ditch, wherethrough, at their pleasure, they may let in the sea.

About two leagues from Havanna, there lieth another town
called Guanabacoa, in which there are dwelling about 100
Indians : and from this place sixty leagues, there lieth
another town named Bahama, situated on the north side of
the island. The chiefest city of this island of Cuba, which
is above 200 miles in length, is also called Cuba [ Santiago
de Cuba ] ; where dwelleth a Bishop and about 200 Spaniards :
which town standeth on the south side of the island about
a hundred leagues from Havanna.

All the trade of this island is cattle ; which they kill only
for the hides that are brought thence into Spain. For which
end, the Spaniards maintain there many negroes to kill their
cattle : and foster [breed] a great number of hogs, which

272 Returning by Quatemala, to Mexico,

being killed and cut into small pieces, they dry in the sun ;
and so make provision for the ships which come for Spain.

Having remained in this island two months, I took shipping
[ ? in July, 1571] in a frigate [brigantine], and went over to
Nombre de Dios ; and from thence by land to Panama, which
standeth upon the South Sea. From Nombre de Dios to
Panama is seventeen leagues [see Vol. II pp. 232, 270-3].
From which town [Nombre] there runneth a river, which is
called the River of Chagres, which runneth [up] within five
leagues of Panama, to a place called [Venta de] Cruzes: by
which river they carry their goods and disembark it at the said
Cruzes ; and from thence it is conveyed on mules’ backs to
Panama by land : where they again embark it, in certain
small ships, in the South Sea for all the coast of Peru. In
one of these ships, I went to [started for] Potosi, and from
thence by land to Cuzco, and from thence to Paita. Here
I remained the space of seven months.

I then returned towards the Kingdom of Quatemala ; and
arrived in the Provinces of Nicoya and Nicaragua.

From Nicaragua, I travelled by land to a Province called
Nicamula, which lieth towards the North Sea [Gidf of
Mexico] in certain high mountains : for that I could not pass
through the kingdom of Quatemala at that time, for the
waters wherewith all the low countries of the Province of
Soconusco, lying by the South Sea, are drowned with the
rain that falleth above in the mountains, enduring always
from April to September ; which season for that cause they
call their winter.

From this Province, I came into another called Vera
Paz ; in which the chiefest city is also called after that name,
where there dwelleth a Bishop, and about forty Spaniards.
Among the mountains of this country towards the North
Sea, there is a Province called La Candona, where are Indian
men of war which the King cannot subdue : for they have
towns and forts in a great lake of water above, in the said
mountains. The most part of them go naked, and some
wear mantles of cotton wool.

Distant from this, about eighty leagues, I came into an¬
other Province, called the Province of Chiapa ; wherein the
chiefest city is called Zacatlan [Ciudad Real] : where dwelleth
a Bishop and about a hundred Spaniards. In this country

*‘?chiis86:] Third trip, i572-3,toTampico & Zacatecas 273

there is great store of cotton wool ; whereof the Indians make
fine linen cloth, which the Christians buy and carry into New
Spain. The people of this Province pay their tribute to the
King all in cotton wool and feathers.

Fourteen leagues from this city, there is another city
called Chiapa ; where are the finest gennets in all the Indies,
which are carried hence to Mexico, 300 leagues from it.

From this city, I travelled still [going now southward ]
through hills and mountains till I came to the end of this
Province, to a hill called Ecatepec, which in English signi¬
fied, the “ Hill of Wind ” : for that they say it is the highest
hill that was ever discovered, for from the top of it may be
discovered both the North and South Seas ; and it is in height
supposed to be nine leagues. They which travel over it, lie
always at the foot of it overnight, and begin their journey
about midnight to travel to the top of it before the sunrise
of the next day : because the wind bloweth with such force
afterwards, that it is impossible for any man to go up.

From the foot of this hill to Tehuantepec, the first town
of New Spain, is about fifteen leagues. And so from thence, I
journeyed to Mexico.

By and by, after I came to Mexico, which was in the year
1572 ; in the company of another Spaniard, who was my
companion in this journey [to Peru and hack ] ; we went to¬
gether toward the Province of Panuco which lieth upon the
coast of the North Sea.

Within three days’ journey, we entered a city called Mez-
titlan, where there dwelt twelve Spaniards. The Indian
inhabitants there were about 30,000. This city standeth in
certain high mountains, which are very thick planted with
trees; very wholesome and fruitful, having plentiful fountains
of water running through them. The highways of these hills
are all set with fruits and most pleasant trees of divers kinds.
In every town, as we passed through, the Indians presented
us with victuals.

Within twenty leagues of this place, there is another city,
called Tlanchinoltepec, belonging to a gentleman, where
there inhabit about 40,000 Indians : and there are among
them, eight or nine Friars of the order of Saint Augustine,
who have there a monastery.

274C HILTON 41 DAYS SICK AT PANUCO. P^gse.*

Within three days after, we departed from this place, and
came to a city called Guaxutla; where there is another
Monastery of Friars of the same order. There dwell in this
town about twelve Spaniards.

From this place forwards, beginneth a Province called
Guastecan ; which is all plain grounds without any hills.
The first town we came unto is called Tanguilabe, in which
there dwell many Indians high of stature, having all their
bodies painted with blue, and wear their hair long down to
their knees, tied as women used to do with their hairlaces.
When they go out of their doors, they carry with them their
bows and arrows, being very great archers : going for the
most part naked.

In those countries, they take neither gold nor silver for
exchange of anything; but only salt: which they greatly
esteem, and use it as a principal medicine for certain v/orms
which breed in their lips and in their gums.

After nine days* travel from this place, we came to a town
called Tampico, which is a port town upon the sea ; wherein
there dwell, I think, forty Christians : of which number,
whilst we abode there, the Indians [ Chichimics ] killed four¬
teen, as they were gathering salt ; which is all the trade that
they have in this place. It standeth upon the entry of the
river of Panuco, which is a mighty great river : and were it
not for a sand that lieth at the mouth of it, ships of 500
tons might go up into it above threescore leagues.

From hence, we went to Panuco, fourteen leagues from
Tampico ; which in times past had been a goodly city, where
the King of Spain had his Governor : but by reason that the
Indians [Chichimics] there destroyed the Christians, it lieth
in a manner waste, containing in it not above ten Christians,
with a priest.

In this town, I fell sick: where I lay forty-one days, having
no other sustenance than fruit and water : which water I sent
for, about six leagues off within the country. Here I remained
till my companion came to me, who had departed from
me another way ; I having kept in my company only a slave
which I brought with me from Mexico : and the last day in
Easter week [1572 or 1573], my companion came to me,
finding me in a very weak state, by reason of the unwhole¬
someness of the place.

J‘?Chii586.'] Nearly eaten by the Chichimic Indians. 275

Notwithstanding my weakness, I being set on a horse and
an Indian behind me to hold me ; we went forward in our
voyage all that day till night.

The next day, in the morning, we passed over the river in
a canoe : and being on the other side, I went myself before
alone ; and by reason there met many ways trailed by the
wild beasts, I lost my way : and so travelled through a great
wood about two leagues ; and at length fell into the hands
of certain wild Indians [ Chichimics ], which were in certain
cottages made of straw. Who seeing me, came out, to the
number of twenty of them, with their bows and arrows ;
and spake unto me in their language ; which I understood
not.

So I made signs unto them to help me from my horse ;
which they did, by commandment of their lord [chief] which
was there with them : and [a] lighted down, they carried me
under one of their cottages, and laid me upon a mat on the
ground.

Perceiving that I could not understand them, they brought
unto me a little Indian wench, of Mexico, of fifteen or sixteen
years of age; whom they commanded to ask me in her
language, from whence I came, and for what intent I am
among them ? “ For,” said she, “ dost thou not know,

Christian ! how that these people will kill and eat thee ? ”

To whom I answered, “ Let them do with me, what they
will ! here now I am ! ”

She replied, saying, “ Thou mayst thank GOD thou art
lean ! for they do fear thou hast the [smalljpox, otherwise
they would eat thee ! ”

So I presented to the King [cacique or chiefs a little wine,
which I had with me in a bottle ; which he esteemed above
any treasure : for for wine they will sell their wives and
children.

Afterwards the wench asked me, “ What I would have,
and whether I would eat anything ? ”

I answered that “ I desired a little water to drink, for that
the country is very hot! ”

She brought me a great gilded Venice glass full of
water. Marvelling at the glass, I demanded, “ How they
came by it ? ”

She told me that “ the Caique brought it from Shallapa

276 On the march from Panuco to Zacatecas.

[? Jalapa], a town on the hills distant from this place thirty
leagues; whereas dwelt certain Christians and certain Friars
jf the order of St. Augustine : which this Caique with his
people, on a night, slew ; and burning the Friars’ Monastery,
among other things, reserved this glass ; and from hence also
brought me.”

Having now been conversant with them, three or four
hours, they bid her ask me, “ if I would go my way ? ”

I answered her that “ I desired nothing else.”

So the Caique caused two of the Indians to lead me for¬
ward in my way, going before me, with their naked bows and
arrows, the space of three leagues, till they brought me to a
highway : and then making a sign to me, they signified that
in a short time, I should come to a town where Christians
inhabited ; which was called Santiago de las Villas, standing
in the plain fields, walled about with a mud wall. The num¬
ber of Christians that dwelt therein were not above four or
five and twenty : unto which the King of Spain giveth Indians
and towns, to keep the country subject unto him.

Here the Christians have their mighty mules, with which
they carry to all parts of the Indies, and into Peru : for all
their merchandise is carried by land by this means.

In this town aforesaid, I found my company [his Spanish
friend , &c.] which I had lost before ; who made no other
account of me but that I had been slain. And the Christians
there likewise marvelled to hear that I came from those kind
of Indians alive : which was a thing never seen, nor heard of
before. For they take great pride in killing a Christian, and
to wear any part of him where he hath any hair growing
[e.g., the scalp], hanging it about their necks, and so are
accounted for valiant men.

In this town, I remained eighteen days, till I recovered
my health. In the mean space, there came one Don
Francisco de Pago, whom the Viceroy, Don Henrico Manri-
ques, had sent, for Captain General, to open and discover a
certain way from the seaside to the mines of Zacatecas,
which is from this place 160 leagues ; for to transport
their merchandise that way : and to leave the way by Mexico,
which is seven or eight months’ travel.

So this Captain took me and my company [his slave ,

Fourth trip, to Campeche and Yucatan. 277

Spanish friend , &ci] with the rest of his soldiers, to the num¬
ber of forty, which he had brought with him, and 500 Indians
which we took out of two towns in this Province called
Tanchipa and Tamadelipa, all good archers and naked men;
and went thence to the river de las Palmas [ ? Rio Satander]
of great bigness, parting the kingdom of New Spain and
Florida.

Going still along by this river the space of three days, seek¬
ing a passage to pass over and finding none : we were at length
enforced to cut timber to make a balsa [raff] which when we
had made, we sat on it, and the Indians swimming in the
water and thrusting it before them to the other side.

Within thirty days after, after travelling through woods,
hills, and mountains, we came to the mines of Zacatecas :
which are the richest mines in all the Indies, and from
thence they fetch most silver. In which mines, there dwelt
above 300 Christians.

There, our Captain gave us leave to depart. So we came
to the Valley of Saint Michael, toward Mexico; and from
thence to Puebla Neuva.

And from that place, to the Province of Mechuacan (after
which name, the chiefest city of that place is called, where
dwell a Bishop and above a hundred Spaniards in it). It
aboundeth with all kinds of Spanish fruits, and hath woods
full of nut trees and wild vines. Here are many mines of
copper, and great store of cattle. It lieth sixty leagues from
Mexico (whither we came within four days after). The
Indians of this country are very mighty and big men.

Afterwards, I returned another way, to the Province of Son-
sonate, by Vera Cruz; and so to the Rio Alvarado ; and from
thence to the Province of Campeche [now Yucatan], which
lieth on the south side of the Bay of Mexico. The chief town
of this Province is called Merida, in which is a Bishop and
almost a hundred Spaniards. The Indians of this Province
pay all their tribute in mantles of cotton wool and cocoa.
There is no port in all this Province for a ship of a 100 tons
to ride in, but only in the river of Tabasco, by which river
the city of Merida standeth. The chiefest merchandise with
which they lade there in small frigates, is a certain wood

278 The King of Spain’s W. Indian revenue. [J*

called campeche [logwood] wherewith they use to dye, as also
hides and anil.

By this, there lieth the Province of Yucatan near the
Hondurafs] by the North Sea coast ; where there is also
another Bishop, and a town likewise named Yucatans
[ ? Valladolid ], where dwell a few Spaniards. They have no
force at all, in all this coast, to defend themselves withal ;
save only that the land is low, and there is no port to receive
any shipping unless they be frigates, which carry from thence
to the port of San Juan de Ulua, wax, cocoa, honey: also
mantles of cotton wool, whereof they make their great store ;
and of which kind of merchandise there is great trade thence
to Mexico. Of the same also, they pay their tribute to the
King.

The King hath tribute brought him yearly out of the Indies
into Spain of between nine and ten millions of gold and silver
[i.e., crowns , equal to seventy to eighty millions of the present day].
For he receiveth of every Indian that is subject to him, ex¬
cepting those which do belong to the Incommenderos (which
are the children of those Spaniards who first conquered the
land ; to whom the King gave and granted the government
of the cities and towns subdued, for three lives) 12 Rials of
Plate [= 6s., or in present value 48s.] and a hannega (five of
them make a Quarter of English measure) of maize which is
a wheat of the country : and of every widow woman, he had
6J rials [3s. 3^., or 26 s. now] and half a hannega of maize.
So if an infidel [heathen] have twenty children in his house,
he payeth for every one of them, being above fifteen years
old, after that rate. This wheat, being duly brought to the
Governor of every Province and city, is sold in Mexico, by
the King’s Governors there, every year. So that the money
received for it is put into the King’s Treasury there; and so
is yearly carried from thence into Spain.

Of the Spaniards which are owners of the mines of gold
and silver, he receiveth the Fifth Part, which he calleth his
Quintas : which being taken out of the heap, there are his
arms set on it ; for, otherwise, it may not be brought out of
the land into Spain, under pain of death.

The Mark of Silver, which is 8 ounces, when it cometh

J’?chIi586.‘] The Christians and Indians rebellious. 279

out of the mines, not having the King’s seal upon it, is
worth 43 Rials of Plate [= 21s. 6 d. or about £ 8 8s. now], and
so it is current. And when they will bring it for Spain, they
carry it to the King’s Treasure House [at Mexico] where his
seal is set upon it ; and so it is raised in value thereby, to
64 Rials of Plate : and so the King hath for his custom [tax]
of every Mark of Plate 21 Rials.

From the year [15170, which was the year that the Pope’s
Bulls came into the Indies, as is before mentioned : he [the
King] hath received, both of the Indians which are tributaries
to him, and also of all others belonging to the Incommenderos ,
of every one, being above twelve years of age, four Rials
[= 2s. = 16s. now] of every Bull.

Also they carry other Pardons with them into the Indies,
for such as be dead, although a hundred years before the
Spaniards came into the country : which Pardons , the Friars
in their preachings, persuade the poor Indians to take ; tell¬
ing them, that with giving four Rials of Plate [2s. — 1 6s. now]
for a Mass, they would deliver their souls out of purgatory.

Of the Christians likewise, dwelling there, he hath 14
Rials [ys. = 56s. now] for every Bull : and there be certain
Bulls brought thither for the Christians besides the former,
which serve for pardoning all such faults wherein they have
trespassed against either the King by keeping back his cus¬
toms, or one against another, by any other injury. For every
100 crowns [=£30 = £240 now] whereof his conscience doth
accuse him, that he hath deceived the King or any other, he
must give 10 [£3— -£24 now] ; and so, after that rate, for
every 100 which he hath, any way, stolen ; and so is par¬
doned the fault.

The revenue of his Bulls, after this manner, yieldeth unto
his Treasury yearly, above three millions [crowns = above
£1,000,000, or £8,000,000 now] of gold as I have been credibly
informed. Although of late, both the Spaniards and the
Indians do refuse to take the Bulls : for that they perceive
he doth make a yearly custom [tax] of it. Only the Indian
takes one Pardon for all his household (whereas in former
time every Indian used to take one for every person in the
house), and teareth the same into small pieces, and giveth
to every one of his household a little piece, saying thus,
“ They need now no more ; seeing, in that which they bought

280 No wine or oil may grow in Mexico.

the year before they had above 10,000 years’ Pardon .”
These pieces they stick up in the wall of the houses where
they lie.

Both the Christians and Indians are weary with these
infinite taxes and customs, which, of late, he hath imposed
upon them more than in the years before.

So the people of both sorts did rebel twice in the time
that I was among them [1568-1585 ?] ; and would have set
up another King of themselves. For which cause, the King
hath commanded, upon pain of death, that they should not
plant either wine or oil there ; but should always stand in
need of them to be brought out of Spain : although there
would more grow there in four years, than there groweth in
Spain in twenty, it is so fertile a country.

And the King, to keep the country always in subjection
and to his own use, hath straitly provided by law, upon pain
of death and loss of goods, that none of these countries
should traffic with any other nation, although the people
themselves do much now desire to trade with any other
that with them [than with them] ; which they would un¬
doubtedly do, if they feared not the peril.

About Mexico and other places in New Spain, there groweth
a certain plant called Nege [the Mexican Agave], which yieldeth
wine, vinegar, honey, and black sugar ; and of the leaves of it
dried, they make hemp, ropes, shoes which they use, and tiles
for their houses : and at the end of every leaf there groweth a
sharp point like an awl, wherewith they use to bore or pierce
through anything.

Thus I make an end. I have here set down the sum of
all the chiefest things that I have observed and noted in my
seventeen years’ travels in those parts.

28i

N. H.

The worthy and famous V oyage of Master
Thomas Cavendish , made round about
the Globe of the Earth ; in the
space of two years, and less
than two months.

Beg un in the year 1586.

[Hakluyt’s Voyages . 1589.]

[He worshipful and worthy gentleman, Master
Thomas Ca[ve]ndish of Suffolk, having in the
year 1585 furnished out a ship, wherein he went,
as Captain, with Sir Richard Grenville to
Virginia: in which course he passed by the
Canaries, and so to the isles of Dominica, Hispaniola, Saint
John de Porto Rico, the Lucaios [Bahamas], and Florida, in
the West Indies. Thus fleshed, and somewhat hardened unto
the sea, immediately after his coming home, he began to take
in hand a Voyage into the South Sea, and consequently
round about the Globe of the Earth : which he also per¬
formed with invincible courage, great good government, and
incredible celerity; to the great admiration of all men of
judgement.

Having therefore, at his own proper cost, new built from
the keel, and furnished with all things necessary for two
years’ provision, a brave ship called the Desire of 140 tons,
and a lesser of 60 tons, whose name was the Content ; joining
thereunto a bark of 40 tons named the Hugh Gallant , in

282 By the Canaries ro Sierra Leone. [nis?8;

which small fleet were 125 men : the 10th day of June 1586,
he departed from London, and came to Harwich ; and sailed
from thence the 29th of the same month. He arrived at
Plymouth the 8th day of July, from whence he set sail the
21st thereof. Thus he proceeded on his voyage until the 25th
day; at which time, one Master Hope died, who had been
wounded a little before he went to sea.

The 26th day, we met with four great Biscayen ships, on
which we bestowed eighteen great shot, and shrewdly tare
that ship which we in the Admiral [flag ship] assailed; but we
left her and the others, lest we should loose the rest of our
consorts, it being nine o’clock at night.

The 5th day of August, we fell in with the island of
Fuerte Ventura [one of the Canaries ], and sailed thence to
Cape Blanco ; and so to the coast of Guinea unto a harbour
called Sierra Leone : where, having conference with the
negroes, we fell at variance ; so that three score of our men
went on shore, and drave them from their town, sacked their
houses and burnt their dwellings. On the 29th of the same
month, we departed from them, where going five leagues from
the place we came to an island called Insula Verde [? Sherboro
Island], where we found plantains and other fruits, and fresh
water; it being an island of the negroes’ husbandry.

The 6th of September, we burnt here some 150 houses,
because of their bad dealing with us and all Christians. In
this place, we redeemed a Portuguese; whom by treason they
had caught, and held in very miserable captivity. The 13th
day, we went from thence ; the 30th, we passed the equinoctial
line.

Thus we sailed forth, until the 25th of October, at which
time we came to the continent of Brazil ; and coasting along
until the end of that month, the 1st of November we anchored
under an island called Saint Sebastian [about 250 S'. Lat.] ;
where we rode twenty-three days between the main [sea] and
it. There we stored ourselves with fresh water and fuel ; and
built a new pinnace of 10 tons. On the 9th day, died one
Robert Smith of the disease called scorbuto ; which is an
infection of the blood and the liver. The 23rd of November,
we left this island.

On the 5th December, died one Robert Tates of the
disease aforesaid. So coasting along till the 16th of this

^88H] “Town of Famine” in Magellan Straits. 283

month, we discovered an harbour which we named the Port
of Desire , according to our ship’s name ; being almost as big
as the harbour of Plymouth. In this place we had gulls,
puets [lapwings] , penguins, and seals in abundance, to all our
comforts and great refreshing. This Port is somewhat on
this side of Port St. Julian.

Sailing from this harbour towards the Straits [of Magellan],
before we came to the entrance thereof, we espied certain
poor starved Spaniards travelling overland towards the River
of Plate, whereof we took one into our ship : of whom we
understood that of both the two colonies planted in the
Straits of Magellan by Pedro Sarmiento, there were but
twenty-two men only left alive ; all the rest being utterly
perished for hunger, to the number of some three hundred
persons.

On the 6th day of January [1587], we put into the Straits
of Magellan; and on the 8th, we came to two islands named
by Sir Francis Drake, the one Bartholomew Island, because
he came thither on that Saint’s day; and the other, Penguin
Island, upon which we powdered [salted] three tons of pen¬
guins for the victualling of our ship.

On the 9th day, we came unto a town of the Spaniards,
erected in March 1584, called by them the “ City of King
Philip,” but by us the ‘‘Town of Famine;” because we
evidently saw the inhabitants, saving the aforesaid twenty-
two, had all been most miserably starved. We took away
with us six pieces of their ordnance, whereof three were
brass and three were iron ; and were glad to hasten from this
place, for the most noisome stench and vile savour wherewith
it was infected, through the contagion of the Spaniards’ pined
and dead carcasses.

Thus sailing through the Straits, the 20th day of January,
in the midway, we espied savages of a reasonable stature,
and went unto them, and conferred with them; but such was
their brutishness and their treachery, that they would have
betrayed us under the show of amity ; but we espying their
treason, gave the first onset, and every shot of us chose his
man; and by that means slew some, and hurt more. The
rest escaped. So having many flaws of southerly and south¬
westerly wind, we were kept within the Straits until the 23rd
of February.

284 Twelve Men lost at Quintera. [NI5g;

That same day, we passed out of the Straits into the sea
called by Magellan, mare pacificum , “the Peaceable or the
Calm Sea.” Thus we plied up along the coast of Chili by
the island of La Mocha, which standeth in 38° S. Lat., until
the 14th of March, when we rode under an island called
Santa Maria. On which island, we landed eighty men armed,
in the morning betimes ; and there came unto us the country
people, which intreated our General [T. Cavendish] very
well, and presented him with many sorts of meats. For there
we had at our commandment, Spanish wheat, potatoes, hogs,
hens, dried dog fish, and divers other good things ; to our
contentment.

The 20th day, we departed thence, running along until the
28th; which day, being at sea, we felt an earthquake in 330
S. Lat. We put into a bay called the Bay of Quintera on
the 30th of this month ; where, the 1st of April, we had ten
of our men slain, and two taken captive by the Spaniards :
which great misfortune lighted on our men through their
great recklessness, and want of circumspection ; being sud¬
denly surprised by the enemy, when they little thought of
him. But on the 3rd day of the same month, the Hugh went
forth to seaward, and found an island having a great store of
pelicans and penguins upon it ; whereof they brought good
store unto us. And so furnishing ourselves here with fresh
water, which we took in despite of them all : we left them,
and their cruel harbour, and put out of the bay the 5th of
April.

Thus ranging along, we hauled in with a port call Mormo-
rano, where we found a canoe and an Indian in it ; which
was fishing and had caught a very large tuny, wherewith he
presented us. In our conference with him, he showed us the
town, which was base and rude. But their government and
behaviour are very strange: for when any of them dieth, they
bury all his goods and stuff with him, as hooks, nets, canoe,
and other trifles.

So sailing along that shore, one of our ships called the
Content , entered into a bay where a great deal of wine of
Castile was buried in botisios in the sand ; to the quantity of
some 300 tuns, wherewith she laded herself; having lost our
company. But they found us again at a town* called Arica,
where they gave us of their wine. In this harbour, we found

Spoiling along the Coast northward. 285

a great ship and four barks, which we took and kept until
such time as we had taken out of them the best things for
our own provision: then we burnt them all; saving one bark,
which we kept, and named it the George , because we took
her on St. George’s Day [23 April],

The 25th day of April, we went from Arica, sailing to
seaward all night ; and in the morning, we espied a small
bark. Manning our pinnace, we took her : wherein were
three Spaniards, one Greek, and one Dutchman. Being
examined, they confessed that they came from the Bay of
Quintera (where we lost our foresaid twelve men), and that
their intent was to go for Lima, to give advice to the Viceroy
for to provide force to cut us off : but their pretence [device] ,
through GOD’s merciful providence, was prevented. One of
these Spaniards was a reasonable pilot for those seas.

Thus we continued our course along the coast of Peru
until the 4th day of May, upon which day our Spanish pilot
led us into a bay called Pisco, where we would have gone on
shore, but the sea was so grown [rough] that we could not.
Yet on the southernmost side of the bay, there was a village
called Paraca, where seven of our men went on land, and
found figs, pomegranates, and pomegranate wine.

On the 6th of May, we went from Paraca ; and in our
course we descried to seaward two sails; and gave them
chase, and took them. One was laden with meal and marma¬
lade, the other with merchants’ goods as sayes [cloths] of
divers sorts and colours, Castile or white soap, a kind of
pease called garvansas, Cordovan skins, montego deporco which
is hog’s grease clarified or refined, and molasses or syrup of
sugar, beans, and one or two thousand hens alive. Hereupon
we gat us into a bay called Cheripa, where we laded our
ships with part of these commodities ; and burnt the rest,
ships and all : having put the men that were in them on
land ; and departed from thence the 10th of May.

Thus sailing forward, we hauled into a Bay called Payta,
where we took a bark unrigged ; and landed three score
men and took the town ; out of which we drave about three
hundred persons which fled with bag and baggage ; whom
we pursued so fast, that they were forced to leave their
lodgings behind them. In the end, we set their town on
fire; because they sought not to redeem the same. And

286

Nine Men Lost at Puna. [_NI5fi

because we found small store of treasure here, we came away
the same night.

On the 2nd of June, we went to the island of Puna, where
we trimmed our ships, and refreshed our men ; though
somewhat to our costs. For on the 2nd of June, our men
thinking themselves to be sure and safe enough, four score or
a hundred Spaniards with two hundred Indians (for there
was a town of Indians in the island bigger than Gravesend)
set upon fifteen or sixteen of our men, being half asleep and
half awake ; slew five or six, and took two or three of them,
before any supply [supports] could come unto them : at the
coming whereof, they all ran away like greyhounds.

Our men for revenge burnt their town, and spoiled their
fields and gardens : but first we took the fruits of the island
as goats, hogs, hens, figs, oranges, lemons, besides other
wholesome herbs in great quantity.

So after we had trimmed our fleet, we came away. But
for a farewell, we first set four of their ships on fire, whereof
one was of 200 tons, the rest of a 100 a piece : being all
upon the stocks a building. We also fired another of 400
tons, called the Great Saint Luce , riding before the town, to be
mended : because they have never another so good a place to
bring their ships aground as that is, on all the coast of Peru.

After that we had taken in fresh water, we went from
thence the nth day of June ; and the 12th day we passed the
equinoctial line, continuing our course northward all that
month.

About the beginning of July, as we ranged along the back
side of New Spain, near unto Guatemala, where there is an
hill that burneth continually : we escried a new ship of 200
tons ; wherein were two Spaniards, two Marseilleans, two
Venetians, and one Fleming. In which ship was little or
nothing, but her ballast. We took her sails, ropes, and fire¬
wood to serve our turns, set her on fire, and kept the men ;
of which number, we brought one, called Michael Sancius,
a pilot into England.

On the next day, we took another ship, the men being
escaped with their boat on land ; which, after we had taken
certain victuals out of her, we also set on fire. This was the
ship of adviso, to give warning of us, sent from Lima to the
coast of New Spain.

^•88h] Spoiling along the Mexican Coast. 287

The 28th of July, we came to the port of Aguatulco
[Acapulco] , in which we found a ship laden with cocoa,
a fruit like almonds much esteemed in those parts : and
taking the spoil thereof, we set the ship and town on fire for
company. The people ran away at the sight of our little
pinnace, our ships lying three leagues off at that time. There
were some four score houses in this town, being a haven that
belongeth to Mexico. In this place we had great store
of pitch, which stood us in great stead for our ships ; and
some quantity of Wine of Castile, as they call it.

The 4th day of August, we departed from this place : and
coming forth, we took a she tortoise which had about four
hundred and odd eggs in her ; which eggs we eat, and found
them to be good meat.

The 13th of August, we fell in with a haven of New
Spain called Puerto de Natividad, about ig° [N.] Lat. ; where
we had conference with four Indians. There we took the
post of adviso, that ran by land on horse ; whose horse we
slew, and took him prisoner.

We burnt two ships of 200 tons the piece, which were in
building in the harbour. And six leagues from thence, there
was a little island or rock replenished with abundance of
birds ; whereof we got a good store, to our great refreshing :
there were also innumerable sort of parrots as big as hens.
In another haven hard by, called Puerto de Santo Jago, we
dragged for pearls, and took some store.

The 3rd of September, we came away; having trimmed
our pinnace, which was wonderful leaky with worms.

The 8th day of the same, we came into a bay called
the Bay of Compostella, where our men went two leagues up
into the country early in the morning ; and took a Spaniard
and his wife, a Ragusean and his wife, with an Indian and
his wife ; and brought them away unto our General : who
set the women at liberty, and they redeemed their husbands
with fruits as plantains, mamejas, pineapples, oranges and
lemons ; of all which there is great abundance ; as the
Spaniard said tanto como terra , “ as plenty as there is of
earth.”

On the 12th of September, we came to an island, two
leagues from thence, called Saint Andrew; where we had
fowls and seals and guanos , of which we made very good

288 Capture the Galleon St, ; Anna the Gee at. [nI5^;

victuals : howbeit they would scarcely take the salt but for
a night and a day only.

The 16th of the same month, we came into a bay called
Mazatlan, where we had fruit and fish : but were in great
danger of our enemies.

We traversed from thence unto the southernmost Cape of
California [Cape Saint Lucas]; where beating up and down, we
discovered a port called by the Spaniards Agua Secura, and
found good store of fresh water.

We lay off and on this Cape until the 4th of November, on
which day in the morning we espied the goodly ship coming
from the Philippines called Saint Anna the Great , being of 700
tons. We chased her until noon ; so fetching her up, we
gave them fight to the loss of twelve or fourteen of their
men, and the spoil and hurt of many more of them : where-
upon at last they yielded unto us. In this conflict, we lost
only two of our men.

So on the 6th of the said November, we went into the
Port of Agua Secura ; where we anchored, and put nine
score prisoners on land : and ransacking the great ship, we
laded our own two ships with forty tons of the chiefest
merchandise, and burnt all the rest, as well ship as goods
to the quantity of 600 tons of rich merchandise : because we
were not able to bring it away. This was one of the richest
vessels that ever sailed on the seas ; and was able to have
made many hundreds wealthy, if we had had means to have
brought it home.

At length, having furnished ourselves with water and
wood, and made us ready for the sea, we set sail the 20th of
November; and came away. From Cape California, we
shaped our course to the islands of the Ladrones; and by
the providence of GOD we came unto them in two and forty
days, the distance being 2,300 leagues.

The first island of the Ladrones, where we touched [1st or
2nd of January 1588] was Guam. The inhabitants are
thievish and treacherous. They met us at sea three leagues
off, in small canoes admirable to behold for their swiftness
in sailing; with which people we had some traffic until the
evening. So we left them, directing our course unto the
islands of the Philippines until the 14th January, on which
day we fell in with an island called Tadaia; and from thence,

^•88h] From California to Cape of Good Hope. 289

we passed by the island of Luzon or Manilla, until we came
to an island called Capul ; where we had hens, hogs,
potatoes, cocoas, and other fruits, by traffic with the
Indians ; making our abode there until the 24th of the
aforesaid January.

Then proceeding on our voyage through the infinite
number of islands towards those rich islands of the
Moluccas ; we passed by Mindanao, which is the last
island that the Spaniards inhabit that way. So we ran
between Celebes or Batachina, and Borneo until the 12th
day of February.

And on the 28th and last of the same, we put through
between the Straits of Java major and Java minor [i.e. the
Straits of Sunday and anchored under the south-west
part of Java major: where the inhabitants, being Gentiles
[heathen], brought unto us hens, geese, hens’ eggs, ducks’
eggs, beeves [oxens], buffes [buffalos], melons, plantains,
and a hundred sorts of fruit most strange and wonderful for
greatness and goodness; even whole junks’ full, being a kind
of barks made like unto our barges. These people did
intreat us wonderfully well, and came as duly to traffic with
us in our ship as we do in our markets and shops ; and
brought from their King divers presents to our General, and
carried divers rich gifts from our General to their King.

The King sent many of his kinsmen and chief courtiers a
shipboard to entertain him [i.e., Master Cavendish], being
men of very good behaviour. They sit cross legged. They
would fain have had our General come to the King’s chief
town; because he was not well able to come down to our
ship, being a man of great age, and as they reported very
near 150 years old : but our General excused himself, and
that with reason. He would have sent his son in his own
stead ; but that he was at war against another King in the
island, their enemy. This old King’s name was Rajah
Bolamboam.

The 16th of March, we set sail from Java major toward
the Cape of Good Hope ; and on the ixth day of May, we
fell [in] with the land of Ethiopia near unto a place called
False Cape, being thirty and odd leagues from the Cape of
Good Hope.

On the 19th of May, we had sight of the Cape of Good
1. T 4

290 English Discovery of Saint Helena. [n;5^;

Hope, which is the promontory that all travellers desire to
double.

The 7th of June, we fell [in] with the island of Saint
Helena, and on the 8th day, we anchored under it : where
we continued twelve days, finding it a place to our great
contentment ; for there we had goats, hogs, figs, oranges,
lemons, pomegranates, and many wholesome herbs for the
gathering. But he that will have of the cattle \i.e., the goats
and hogs] must travel a mile and a half into the steepy
mountain to kill them. We found a church, and thirty or forty
houses built to lodge the Portuguese, in their coming from
the East Indies. There was only one banished man there,
which lived as a hermit : but he was dead before our arrival. a

a Jan Huyghen van Linschoten who reached Saint Helena , on his
return home from Goa in a Portuguese C arrack, the Santa Cruz of 1,600
tons , on the 12 ih May 1589 ( eleven months after Cavendish had , by
adopting the return Portuguese track from the Cape , discovered it to the
English Nation ), gives the following account of the Circumnavigator3 s
voyage.

About three months before our arrival at Saint Helena, there had been a
ship, which the year before set out of Ormuz, with the goods and men
that remained in the San Salvador ; that had been saved by the Portuguese
army, on the coast of Abex, and brought into Ormuz. That ship had
wintered in the Mozambique, and had passed very soon by the Cape ; and
so sailed without any company into Portugal : having left some of her
sick men in the island, as the manner is, which the next ships that came
thither must take into them.

These gave us intelligence, that about four [or rather eleven ] months
before our arrival, there had been an English ship at the island of Saint
Helena; which had sailed through the Straits of Magellan, and through
the South Seas, and from thence to the isles of Philippines ; and had passed
through the Straits of Sunda that lieth beyond Malacca, between the islands
of Sumatra and Java. In the which way, she had taken a ship of China,
such as they call Junks, laden with silver and gold and all kinds of silks :
and that she sent a letter with a small present to the Bishop of Malacca,
telling him, “That she sent him that of friendship, meaning to come
herself and visit him.”

Out of that ship of China, they took a Portuguese pilot : and so passed
the Cape of Good Hope, and came to the island of Saint Helena. Where
they took in fresh water and other necessaries, and beat down the altar
and the cross that stood in the church ; and left behind them a kettle and
a sword, which the Portuguese at our arrival found there. Yet could they
not conceive, or think, what that might mean ? Some thought it was left
there for a sign to some other ships of his company : but every man maj
think what he will thereof.

[ The kettle and sword probably meant nothing at all; being simply left
behind .]

^88H] Just miss the Armada Fight. 291

The 20th of June, we departed from the island of Saint
Helena ; shaping our course from thence for England.

The 4th of July, we passed the equinoctial line: which
was the fourth time that we had traversed the same in this
our journey.

The 24th of August, we had sight of two islands of the
Azores, the one called Flores, the other Corvo ; and directed
our way from them for the Lizard until the 3rd of September :
[where] at which time we espied a Flemish Hulk that came
from Portugal, which told us the joyful news of our Fleet’s
good success against the huge army of the Spaniards [the
Spanish Armada].

And on the 5th day, we met with a ship of Southampton,
which had taken a Brazilian prize : whose Captain informed
us at large of the truth of that which had passed. We took
some refreshing of them : which was recompensed with treble
courtesy.

And so entered into the Narrow Seas, where we had as
terrible a night as ever men endured. For all our sails were
blown quite away, but making as good shift as we could with
certain old sails we had within board : on the next morning,
being the 10th of September 1588, like wearied men, through
the favour of the Almighty, we got into Plymouth ; where
the townsmen received us with all humanity.

In this voyage, we burnt twenty sails of Spanish ships,
besides divers of their towns and villages.

A letter of Master Thomas Ca[ve]ndish, to the Right
Honourable [Lord Hunsdon] the Lord Chamberlain,
one of Her Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council;
touching the success of his Voyage about the World.

[Hakluyt’s Voyages. 1589.]

Right Honourable.

S your favour heretofore hath been most greatly
extended towards me ; so I humbly desire a con¬
tinuance thereof : and though there be no means
in me to deserve the same ; yet the uttermost of
my services shall not be wanting, whensoever it
shall please your Honour to dispose thereof.

292 Letter informing Queen Elizabeth. [t^ sSpt.n^is:

I am humbly to desire your Honour to make known unto
Her Majesty the desire I have had to do Her Majesty service
in the performance. And as it hath pleased GOD to give
her the victory over part of her enemies : so I trust, ere long,
to see her overthrow them all.

For the places of their wealth, whereby they have main¬
tained and made their wars, are now perfectly discovered :
and if it please Her Majesty, with a very small power, she
may take the spoil of them all.

It hath pleased the Almighty to suffer me to circumpass
the whole Globe of the World; entering in at the Straits of
Magellan, and returning by the Cape of Good Hope. In
which voyage, I have either discovered or brought certain
intelligence of all the rich places of the world that ever were
known or discovered by any Christian.

I navigated along the coasts of Chili, Peru, and New Spain,
where I made great spoils. I burnt and sunk nineteen ships,
great and small. All the villages and towns that ever I landed
at, I burnt and spoiled. And had I not been discovered
upon the coast, I had taken great quantity of treasure.

The matter of most profit unto me was a great ship of the
King’s, which I took at California ; which ship came from the
Philippines, being one of the richest of merchandise that ever
passed those seas, as the King’s Register and the Merchants’
Accounts did show: for it did amount in value to [sum
omitted ] in Mexico to be sold. Which goods, for that my
ships were not able to contain the least part of them, I was
enforced to set on fire.

From the Cape of California, being the uttermost part of
all New Spain, I navigated to the islands of the Philippines,
hard upon the coast of China : of which country I have
brought such intelligence as hath not been heard of in these
parts. The stateliness and riches of which country I fear to
make report of ; least I should not be credited. For if I had
not known sufficiently the incomparable wealth of that
country, I should have been as incredulous thereof as others
will be, that have not had the like experience.

I sailed along the islands of the Moluccas; where among
some of the heathen people, I was well intreated. Where
our countrymen may have trade as freely as the Portuguese,
if they will themselves.

Enormous Value of the Cargo. 293

From thence, I passed by the Cape of Good Hope : and
found out, by the way homeward, the island of Saint Helena,
where the Portuguese use to relieve [refresh] themselves.
And from that island, GOD hath suffered me to return into
England.

All which services, with myself, I humbly prostrate at Her
Majesty’s feet ; desiring the Almighty long to continue her
reign amongst us. For at this day, she is the most famous
and victorious Prince that liveth in the world.

Thus humbly desiring pardon of your Honour, for my
tediousness; I leave your Lordship to the tuition of the
Almighty.

Plymouth, this gth of September 1588.

Your Honour’s most humble to command,

Thomas Candish.

To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Walsingham,
Principal Secretary to Her Majesty.

\_Harl. MS. 28 6, fol. 161.]

He special regard which it pleaseth your Honour
to respect me with, can by no means of mine be
desired ; neither can I express what comfort I
receive by these your favours done unto me. My
desire is to be thankful, but I have no means to mani¬
fest the same, but only in honouring and serving you above
all others ; which opinion I most humbly desire your Honour
to hold of me.

Of late, I have not been very well ; but at this present I
thank GOD I am much better than I was : yet not in such
perfect health, but that I mean to use the help of the phy¬
sician ; for whose coming unto me, I am most heartily bound
unto your Honour.

I have had courtesy showed me by your officers for the
custom [import duty] of my goods ; which amounteth to £900
[ = almost £5,000 in present value]. There be some things which
I have kept from their sight, for special causes; which I
mean to make known to your Honour at my coming to Lon¬
don. For I protest, before GOD, that I will not hide any

294 Lost Ballads of the Voyage. [is88#

one thing from you ; neither concerning the quantity of my
goods, nor the secrets of the voyage : which, in many things,
shall not be known but unto your Honour ; for they be
matters of great importance.

And thus giving you most humble thanks for your great
favours done unto me, I humbly take my leave.

Plymouth, this 8th of October 1588.

Your Plonour’s most humbly to command,

Thomas Ca^ndyssh.

Three Ballads, now lost, relating to this Voyage were entered for
publication at Stationers’ Hall at the following dates.

3 NO V EMBER 1588.

A ballad of Master Cavendish’s Voyage, who by travel
compassed the Globe of the World , arriving in England with
abundance of treasure .

14 November 1588.

A new Ballad of the famous and honourable coming of Master
Cavendish’s ship, called the Desire, before the Queen’s Majesty
at her Court at Greenwich , the 12 th of November 1588, &c .

3 December 1588.

Captain Roberts’s Welcome of good will to Captain
Cavendish.

It is not expressly stated that this Welcome was a Ballad : but it would
seem so from the title.

Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers
of London 1554-1640 a.d. II. 505-509, Ed. 1875.

295

The first Englishmen who reached
India , overland .

1 5 8 3 — 1 589 A.D.

Hereafter follow the narratives of the first Englishmen who are
known to have reached India overland ; via Aleppo, Bagdad, Bussorah,
and Ormus.

These narratives all relate to quite an organized expedition of English
traders, who were sent by two of the merchant princes of London at
that time, with the clear intention, that some of them at least should
reach the far East, and open a direct trade between India and
England.

John Eldred'j narrative.

[Hakluyt’s Voyages , ii. 1599.]

Departed out of London in the ship called the
Tiger, in the company of Master John Newbery,
Master Ralph Fitch and six or seven other honest
merchants, on Shrove Monday [12 February ] 1583 ;
and arrived at Tripolis of Syria, the 1st day of
May next ensuing. At our landing, we went a Maying upon
St. George’s Island, a place where Christians dying on board
the ships [at that place], are wont to be buried.

In this city, our English merchants have a Consul, and our
nation abide together in one house with him, called Fondeghi
Ingles, built of stone, square in manner like a cloister ; and
every man hath his several chamber: as is the use there of all
other Christians, of several nations.

296 Aleppo, the Great Turks great mart. [j?E1^;

This town standeth under a part of the mountain of
Lebanon, two English miles from the port : on the side of
which port, trending in form of a half moon, stand five block¬
houses or small forts, wherein is some very good artillery;
and the forts are kept with about a hundred Janissaries.
Right before this town from the seaward is a bank of moving
sand, which gathereth and increaseth with the western
winds, in such sort, that, according to an old prophecy among
them, this bank is likely to swallow up and overwhelm the
town : for every year it increaseth, and eateth up many
gardens ; although they use all policy to diminish the same,
and to make it firm ground.

The city is about the bigness of Bristol, and walled about ;
though the walls be of no great force. The chief strength of
the place is in the Citadel, which standeth on the south side,
within the walls, and overlooketh the whole town. It is
strongly kept with two hundred Janissaries, and good artillery.
A river passeth through the midst of the city, wherewith they
water their gardens and mulberry trees, on which there grow
abundance of silk worms ; wherewith they make a very great
quantity of very white silk, which is the chief natural com¬
modity to be found in and about this place.

This road [haven] is more frequented with Christian mer¬
chants, to wit, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines, Marseillians,
Sicilians, Raguseans, and lately with Englishmen, than any
other port of the Turk’s dominions.

From Tripolis, I departed, the 14th of May, with a caravan;
passing, in three days, over the ridge of Mount Lebanon. At
the end whereof, we arrived in a city called Hammah; which
standeth on a goodly plain, replenished with corn and cotton
wool [i.e., cotton in the pod]. On these mountains, grow a
great quantity of gall trees, which are somewhat like our oaks,
but lesser and more crooked. On the best tree, a man shall
not find a pound’s weight of galls. This town of Hammah is
fallen, and falleth more and more to decay, andat this day [1583]
there is scarce one half of the wall standing : which hath
been very strong and fair. But because it cost many men’s
lives to win it, the Turk will not have it repaired; and hath
written, in Arabic, over the Castle gate, which standeth in the
midst of the town, these words

™:] Floating down the Euphrates. 297

Cursed be the father and the son that shall lay
their hands to the repairing hereof.

Refreshing ourselves one day here, we passed forward with
camels, three days more, until we came to Aleppo : where we
arrived the 21st of May. This is the greatest place of traffic,
for a dry town [i.e.y an inland town , not on a great river] that
there is in all these parts. For hither resort Jews, Tartars,
Persians, Armenians, Egyptians, Indians, and many other sorts
of Christians ; and enjoy freedom of their consciences, and
bring thither many kinds of rich merchandise. In the midst of
this town also, standeth a goodly Castle, raised on high, with
a garrison of four or five hundred Janissaries. Within four
miles round about, are goodly gardens and vineyards and
trees, which bear goodly fruit near unto the side of the river,
which is but small. The walls are about three English miles
in compass ; but the suburbs are almost as much more. The
town is greatly peopled.

We departed from thence, with our camels, on the 31st of
May, with Master John Newbery and his company; and
came to Bir in three days, being a small town situated
upon the river Euphrates ; where it beginneth first to take
that name, being here gathered into one channel ; whereas,
before, it cometh down in manifold branches, and therefore is
called by the people of the country by a name which signifieth
“a thousand heads.” Here are plenty of victuals, whereof
we all furnished ourselves for a long journey down the afore¬
said river. And according to the manner of those that travel
by water, we prepared a small bark for the conveyance of
ourselves and our goods. These boats are flat bottomed
because the river is shallow in many places : and when
men travel in the months of July, August, and September,
the water being then at the lowest, they are constrained to
carry with them a spare boat or two to lighten their own
boats, if they chance to fall on the shoals.

We were eight and twenty days upon the water, between
Bir, and Felugia [Feluja], where we disembarked ourselves and
our goods. Every night, after the sun had set ; we tied our bark
to a stake, went on land to gather sticks, and set on our pot
with rice or bruised wheat. Having supped, the merchants lay

298 The Arabs on the Euphrates. [j,»E1^;

aboard the bark ; and the mariners upon the shore’s side, as
near as they can unto the same. In many places upon the
river’s side, we met with troops of Arabs, of whom we bought
milk, butter, eggs, and lambs ; and gave them in barter (for
they care not for money), glasses, combs, coral, amber, to
hang about their arms and necks; and for churned milk, we
gave them bread, and pomegranate peels wherewith they use
[are accustomed ] to tan their goats’ skins, with which they
churn. Their hair, apparel, and colour are altogether like to
those vagabond Egyptians [Gipsies] which heretofore have
gone about in England. All their women, without exception,
wear a great round ring in one of their nostrils, of gold,
silver, or iron, according to their ability; and about their arms,
and the smalls of their legs they have hoops of gold, silver, or
iron. All of them, as well women and children as men, are
very great swimmers ; and oftentimes swimming, they
brought us milk to our bark, in vessels upon their heads.
Those people are very thievish, which I proved to my cost ;
for they stole a casket of mine, with things of good value in
the same, from under my man’s head as he was asleep : and
therefore travellers keep good watch as they pass down the
river. The Euphrates at Bir is about the breath of the
Thames at Lambeth ; and, in some places narrower, in some
broader, it runneth very swiftly, almost as fast as the river
Trent. It hath divers sorts of fish in it ; but all are scaled,
and some are as big as salmon, like barbel.

We landed at Felugia, the 28th of June, where we made
our abode for seven days, for lack of camels to carry our goods
to Babylon [Bagdad]. The heat, at that time of the year, is
such in those parts, that men are loath to let their camels
travel. This Felugia is a village of some hundred houses,
and a place appointed for the discharging of such goods as
come down the river. The inhabitants are Arabs. Not find*
ing camels here : we were constrained to unlade our goods,
and hired a hundred asses to carry our English merchandise
only to New Babylon over a short desert; in crossing whereof
we spent eighteen hours, travelling by night and part of the
morning, to avoid the great heat.

In this place which we crossed over, stood the old mighty
city of Babylon, many old ruins whereof are easily to be seen
by daylight: which I, John Eldred, have often beheld at

NE1i592.] Description of Bagdad, in 1583 a.d. 299

my good leisure : having made three voyages between the
new city of Babylon and Aleppo, over this desert.

Here also are yet standing the ruins of the old Tower of
Babel, which, being upon a plain ground, seemeth afar off
very great ; but the nearer you come to it, the lesser and lesser
it appeareth. Sundry times I have gone thither to see it,
and found the remnants yet standing, above a quarter of a
mile in compass, and almost as high as the stone work of
[Saint] Paul’s steeple in London ; but it showeth much
bigger. The bricks remaining of this most ancient monu¬
ment be half a yard thick, and three quarters of a yard long ;
being dried in the sun only : and between every course of
bricks, there lieth a course of mats, made of canes, which re¬
main sound and not perished, as though they had been laid
within one year.

The city of New Babylon joineth upon the aforesaid small
desert where the old city was; and the river Tigris runneth
close under the wall: so they may, if they will, open a sluice,
and let the water of the same run round about the town. It
is above two English miles in compass ; and the inhabitants
generally speak three languages, to wit, the Persian, Arabian,
and Turkish tongues. The people are of the Spaniards’ com¬
plexion : and the women generally wear in one of the gristles
of their noses, a ring like a wedding ring, but somewhat
greater, with a pearl and a Turkish stone set therein; and
this they do, be they ever so poor.

This is a place of very great traffic, and a very great
thoroughfare from the East Indies to Aleppo. The town is
very well furnished with victuals which come down the river
Tigris from Mosul, which was called Nineveh in old time.
They bring these victuals and divers sorts of merchandise
upon rafts borne upon goats’ skins blown up full of wind, in
the manner of bladders : and when they have discharged
their goods, they sell the rafts for fire [wood] ; let the wind out
of their goat-skins, and carry them home again upon their
asses by land, to make other voyages down the river. The
building here is mostly of brick dried in the sun ; and very
little or no stone is to be found. Their houses are all flat-
roofed and low. They have no rain for eight months together,
nay, hardly any clouds in the sky, night nor day. Their
winter is in November, December, January, and February;

300 Down the Tigris to Bussorah.

which is as warm as our summer in England, in a manner.
This I know by good experience, because my abode at several
times, in the city of Babylon [Bagdad], hath been, at the
least, the space of two years. As we come to the city, we
pass over the river Tigris, on a great bridge, made with boats
chained together with two mighty chains of iron.

From thence we departed in flat-bottomed barks, stronger
and greater than those of Euphrates, and were twenty-eight
days also in passing down this river to Balsora [ Bussorah ] ;
but we might have done it in eighteen or less, if the water
had been higher.

Upon the water’s side stand, by the way, divers towns
much resembling the names of the old prophets. The first
town they call Ozeah, and another Zecchiah.

Before we come to Balsora, by one day’s journey, the two
rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet; and there standeth a
castle called Curna [Kurnah] kept by the Turks ; where all
merchants pay a small custom. Here the two rivers, joined
together, began to be eight or nine miles broad. Here also
it beginneth to ebb and flow ; and the water overflowing,
maketh the country all about very fertile of corn, rice, pulse,
and dates.

The town of Balsora is a mile and a half in circuit. All
the buildings, castles, and walls are made of brick, dried in
the sun. The Turk hath here five hundred Janissaries,
besides other soldiers, continually in garrison and pay : but
his chief strength is of galleys ; which are about twenty-five
or thirty, very fair, and furnished with goodly ordnance.

To this port of Balsora, come, monthly, divers ships from
Ormus, laden with all sorts of Indian merchandise, as spices,
drugs, indico [indigo] , and Calicut cloth. These ships are
usually from forty to sixty tons, having their planks sown
together with cord made of the bark of date trees, and in¬
stead of occam [oakum] , they use the shiverings [shreds] of
the bark of the said trees ; and of the same also they make
their tackling. They have no kind of iron work belonging
to these vessels, save only their anchors.

From this place, six days’ sailing down the Gulf, they go
to a place called Bahrein [Bahrein], in the midway to Ormus.

™;] Tracking back up the Tigris, to Bagdad. 301

There, they fish for pearls four months in the year, to wit,
June, July, August, and September.

My abode in Balsora was just six months [August 1583-
February 1584], during which time, I received divers letters
from Master John NEWBERYfrom Ormus: who, as he passed
that way, with Her Majesty’s letters to Zelabdim [the glorious ]
Akbar, King of Cambaia, and unto the mighty Emperor of
China, was there treacherously arrested, with all his company,
by the Portuguese ; and afterwards sent prisoner to Goa :
where, after a long and cruel imprisonment, he and his com¬
panions were delivered, upon sureties not to depart the town
without leave, at the suit of one Father Thomas Stevens
an English religious man, whom they found there.

But, shortly after, three of them escaped, whereof one,
to wit, Master Ralph Fitch, is since come into England.
The fourth, who was a painter, called JOHN STORY, became
religious in the College of Saint Paul in Goa ; as we under¬
stood by their letters.

I and my companion William Shales, having despatched
our business at Balsora, embarked ourselves in a company of
seventy barks, all laden with merchandise ; every bark having
fourteen men to draw them, like our Western bargemen on
the Thames : and we were forty-four days coming up the
stream to Babylon. Where arriving, and paying our custom,
we, with all other sorts of merchants, bought us camels,
hired us men to lade and drive them ; furnished ourselves
with rice, butter, biscuit, honey made of dates, onions, and
dates : and every merchant brought a proportion of live
muttons [sheep] , and hired certain shepherds to drive them
with us. We also brought us tents to lie in, and to put our
goods under. In this our caravan were four thousand
camels laden with spices and other rich merchandise. These
camels will live very well two or three days without water.
Their feeding is on thistles, wormwood, magdalene, and
other strong weeds which they find upon the way. The
government and deciding of all quarrels and duties to be
paid, the whole caravan committeth to one specially] rich

302 4° days across the desert to Aleppo. [j-?ei^;

merchant of the company ; of whose honesty they conceive
best.

In passing from Babylon to Aleppo, we spent forty days :
travelling twenty or twenty-four miles a day, resting our¬
selves commonly from two o’clock in the afternoon until
three in the morning, at which time we began to take our
journey.

Eight days’ journey from Babylon towards Aleppo, near
unto a town called Heit [Hit], as we cross the river
Euphrates by boats, about three miles from the town, there
is a valley where are many springs [i.e., of bitumen] throwing
out abundantly, at great mouths, a kind of black substance
like unto tar, which serveth all the country to make staunch
their barks and boats. Every one of these springs maketh a
noise like unto a smith’s forge in the blowing and puffing out
of this matter, which never ceaseth, day or night; and the
noise may be heard a mile off continually. The vale
swalloweth up all heavy things that come upon it. The
people of the country call it, in their language, Babil
Gehenham , that is to say, “ Hell Door.”

As we passed through these deserts, we saw certain wild
beasts, as, wild asses all white, roebucks, wolves, leopards,
foxes, and many hares ; whereof we chased and killed many.
Aborise, the King of the wandering Arabs in these deserts,
hath a duty of 40s. [=£12 now j sterling, upon every camel’s
load ; which he sendeth his officers to receive of the cara¬
vans : and, in consideration hereof, he taketh upon him to
conduct the said caravans, if they need his help, and to
defend them against certain prowling thieves.

I and my companion William Shales came to Aleppo
with the caravan, the nth of June, 1584; where we were
joyfully received, twenty miles distant from the town, by
Master William Barret, our Consul, accompanied with his
people and Janissaries. Who fell sick immediately, and
departed this life, within eight days after : and elected, before
his death, Master Anthony Bate, Consul of our English
nation, in his place ; who laudably supplied the same room
three years.

In which mean time, I made two more voyages to Babylon,
and returned, by the way aforesaid, over the deserts of Arabia.

Feb. 1583.] Queen Elizabeth’s letter to Emp. Akbar. 303

And afterwards, as one desirous to see other parts of the
country, I went from Aleppo to Antioch, which is thence
sixty English miles ; and from thence, went down to Tripolis :
where, going aboard a small vessel, I arrived at Joppa, and
travelled to Rama, Lycia, Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, to
the river Jordan, and the sea or lake of Sodom, and returned
back to Joppa; and from thence, by sea, to Tripolis. Of
which places, because many others have published large dis¬
courses, I surcease to write.

Within a few days after, embarking myself at Tripolis, the
22nd of December [1587],! arrived, GOD be thanked ! in safety
here, in the river Thames, with divers English merchants,
the 26th of March 1588, in the Hercules of London ; which
was the richest ship of English merchants’ goods, that ever
was known to come into this realm.

Ralph Fitch’j Voyage to the
East Indies and back 1583-1591, a.d.

WITH

John Newbery’j letters .

At the expense of some little repetition, Fitch’s Narrative is printed
entire, until his departure from Goa : after which all descriptions of
places, &c., are omitted, and simply an outline of his travels given. The
several letters are inserted in this Narrative, under their respective dates.

Queen l i 2; a b e t h’js better to
the Emperor Akbar.

February, 1583.

j LlZABETH, by the grace of GOD , &c., to the most in¬
vincible , and most mighty Prince , Lord Zelabdim
[the glorious] Akbar, King of Cambaia, invincible
Emperor, &c.

The great affection which our subjects have to visit the
most distant places of the world {not without good will and

304 The Queen’s letter to Emperor of China. [Feb.i583.

intention to introduce the trade of merchandise of all nations ,
whatsoever they can; by which means , the mutual and friendly
traffic of merchandise , on both sides , may come) is the cause
that the bearer of this letter , John Newbery, jointly with
those that be in his company, with a courteous and honest
boldness, doth repair to the borders and countries of your
Empire . We doubt not that your Imperial Majesty, through
your royal grace, will favourably and friendly accept him.
And that you would do it rather for our sake , to make us
greatly beholding to your Majesty, we should more earnestly,
and with more words require it, if we did think it need¬
ful : but, by the singular report that is of your Imperial
Majesty's humanity in these uttermost parts of the world, we
are greatly eased of that burden; and therefore we use the
fewer and less words. Only we request that because they
are our subjects, they may be honestly intreated [treated]
and received : and that, in respect of the hard journey,
which they have undertaken to places so far distant; it
would please your Majesty, with some liberty and security
of voyage to gratify it with such privileges as to you shall seem
good. Which courtesy if your Imperial Majesty shall , to our
subjects, at our requests, perform ; We, according to our royal
honour, will recompense the same with as many deserts as we can.
And herewith, We bid your Imperial Majesty farewell.

Queen Em^abeth'? ietter to
the Emperor of China.

Mizabeth, by the grace of GOD, Queen of England,
'' &c. Most Imperial and invincible Prince ! Our
honest subject, John Newbery, the bringer hereof,
who , with our favour, hath taken in hand the voyage
which now he pursueth to the parts and countries of your
Empire ; not trusting upon any other ground than upon the
favour of your Imperial clemency and humanity, is moved to
undertake a thing of so much difficulty, being persuaded that
he having entered on so many perils, your Majesty will not
dislike the same : especially if it may appear that it be not
damageable unto your Royal Majesty ; and that to your

Ry ***;] Newbery and Fitch start for the East. 305

people it will bring some profit. Of both which things he,
not doubting, with more willing mind, hath prepared himselj
for his destinated voyage, unto us well liked of.

For, by this means, we perceive that the profit , which, by
the mutual trade, on both sides, all the princes, our neighbours
in the West, do receive, your Imperial Majesty and those that
be subject under your dominion, to their great joy and benefit,
shall have the same : which consisteth in the transporting out¬
ward of such things, whereof we have plenty ; and in bringing
in such things as we stand in need of. It cannot otherwise be,
but that , seeing we are born and made to have need one of
another, and that we are bound to aid one another ; but that
your Imperial Majesty will well like of it, and by your
subjects with like endeavour will be accepted.

For the increase whereof , if your Imperial Majesty shall
add the security of passage, with other privileges most
necessary to use the trade with your men, your Majesty shall
do that which belongeth to a most honourable and liberal
Prince ; and deserve so much of Us, as by no continuance or
length of time shall be forgotten .

Which request of ours, We do most instantly desire to be
taken in good part of your Majesty ; and so great a benefit
towards Us and our men, We shall endeavour, by diligence, to
requite, when time shall serve thereunto.

The God Almighty long preserve your Imperial Majesty !

N the year of our Lord 1583, I, Ralph Fitch, of
London, merchant (being desirous to see the
countries of the East India), in the company of
Master John Newbery, merchant, who had been
at Ormus once before,* of William Leedes,
jeweller, and James Story, painter— being chiefly set forth
by the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Osborne, knight, and
Master Richard Stapers, citizens and merchants of London
— did ship myself in a ship of London, called the Tiger,
wherein we went for Tripolis in Syria.

And from thence, we took the way for Aleppo ; which we
went in seven days with the caravan.

* Evidently Newbery first went out in the Bark Reynolds in iq8o or

1581.

I- U 4

306 J. Newbery’s letter to R. Hakluyt. [i’MaySg:

JV1 A £ T E R JOHJH NEWBERY, F R 0 JM
Aleppo, 28th JVIay, i 5 8 3, to JVI a p t e r
Richard Hakluyt of Oxford.

Right well beloved, & my assured good friend,

Heartily commend me unto you, hoping of your
good health, &c. After we set sail from Gravesend,
which was the 13th of February [1583] last, we
remained on the coast till the nth day of March,
and that day we set sail from Falmouth, and never
anchored till we arrived in the road of Tripolis in Syria,
which was the last day of April last past ; where we
stayed fourteen days. And the 20th of this present, we
came hither to Aleppo ; and, with GOD’s help, within
five or six days, go from hence towards the Indies.

Since my coming to Tripolis, I have made very earnest
inquiry, both there and here, for the book of Cosmo¬
graphy of Abulfida Ismael ; but, by no means, can
hear of it. Some say that possibly it may be had in
Persia, but notwithstanding I will not fail to make in¬
quiry for it, both in Babylon and in Balsora ; and if I
can find it in any of these places, I will send it you from
thence.

The letter which you delivered me for to copy out,
that came from Master Thomas Stevens in Goa.
[Stevens arrived at Goa on the 4th November , 1 579], as
also the note you gave me of FRANCIS FERNANDEZ
the Portuguese ; I brought thence with me, among
other writings, unawares. The which I have sent you
here inclosed.

Here is great preparation for the wars in Persia;
and from thence is gone the Pasha of a town named
Rahemet, and, shortly after, goeth the Pasha of Tripolis
and the Pasha of Damascus : but they have not with
them all, above six thousand men from hence. They go
to a town called Asmerome [ ? Erzroum], which is three
days’ journey from Trebizond; where they shall meet
with divers captains and soldiers that come from Con-

2J9Maeyis&'] HlS LETTER FROM ALEPPO, TO L. POORE. 307

stantinople and other places thereabout : and then go
all together into Persia.

This year, many men go to the wars ; and so hath
there every year since the beginning thereof, which is
eight years or thereabouts : but very few of them return
again. Notwithstanding, they get of the Persians; and
make castles and holds in their country.

I pray you ! make my hearty commendations to Master
Peter Guillame, Master Philip Jones, and to Master
Walter Warner, and to all the rest of our friends.
Master Fitch hath him heartily commended unto you.
So I commit you to the tuition of the Almighty, who
bless and keep you! and send us a joyful meeting!

From Aleppo, the 28th of May, 1583.

Your loving friend to command, in all that I may,

John Newbery.

JVI a g t e r John Newbery, frojvi
Aleppo, 29th JVIay, 1583, to jVl /, g t e r
Leonard Poore of London.

Right well beloved,

fp^Wl|Y HEARTY commendations unto you, and the rest of
mm 1 my friends remembered.

lg||gp | My last, I sent you, was the 25th of February

*- — - [1583] last, from Deal, out of the Downs. After which

time, with contrary winds, we remained upon our own
coast until the nth day of March : and then we set sail
from Falmouth, and the 13th day, the wind came con¬
trary with a very great storm, which continued eight
days ; and in this great storm we had some of our goods
wet, but, GOD be thanked ! no great hurt done.

After which time, we sailed with a fair wind within
the Straits [of Gibralter], and so remained at sea, and
anchored at no place until our coming into the road of
Tripolis in Syria; which was the last day of April [1583].
This was a very good passage. GOD make us thankful
for it !

The 14th day of this present, we came from Tripolis,
and the 20th day, arrived here at Aleppo ; and, with the

308 The Reynolds & Emanuel, at Tripolis. [^MayxsS

help of GOD, to-morrow or next day, we begin our
voyage towards Babylon and Balsora, and so into India.

Our friend Master Barret hath him commended to
you : who hath sent you, in the Emanuel , a ball of nut¬
megs for the small trifles you sent him ; which I hope,
long since, you have received.

Also he hath, by his letter, certified you in what
order he sold those things : whereof I can say nothing,
because I have not seen the account thereof, neither
have demanded it : for ever since our coming here, he
hath been still busy about the despatch of the ship (j i.e .,
the Tiger back to England ], and our voyage ; and I, like¬
wise, in buying of things here to carry to Balsora and
the Indies.

We have bought in currall [? coral ] for twelve hundred
and odd ducats [at 6 larines ( p . 184), i.e., 6s. each— £360
then=about £2,160 now] and ambergreese for four hun¬
dred ducats [=£120 then— about £720 now], and some
soap, and broken glass, with other small trifles : all
which things I hope will serve very well for those places
we shall go unto.

All the rest of the account of the bark Reynolds was
sent home in the Emanuel ; which was 3,600 ducats
which is £200 more than it was rated [at]. For Master
Staper rated it but [at] £1,100, and it is £1,300 : so that
our part is £200; besides such profit, as it shall please
GOD to send thereof. Wherefore you shall do well, to
speak to Master Staper for the account.

And if you would content yourself to travel for three or
four years, I would wish you to come hither ; or to go to
Cairo, if any go thither. For we doubt not, if you remained
there but three or four months, you will like so well of
the place, that I think you would not desire to return
again in three or four years. And, if it should be my
chance to remain in any place out of England, I would
choose this before all other that I know. My reason is,
the place is healthful and pleasant, and the gains very
good ; and, no doubt, the profit will be hereafter better,
things being used in good order : for there should come
in every ship the fourth part of her cargason [cargo] in
money ; which would help to put away our commodities

R‘?FIis92.] From Aleppo to Bussorah. 309

at a very good price. Also, to have two very good ships
to come together, would do very well : for, in so doing,
the danger of the voyage might be accounted as little as
from London to Antwerp.

Master Giles Porter and Master Edmund Porter
went from Tripolis in a small bark, to Jaffa, the same
day that we came from thence ; which was the 14th day
of this present : so that, no doubt, but, long since, they
are in Jerusalem. GOD send them and us safe return !

At this instant, I have received the account of Master
Barret, and the rest of the rings, with 22 ducats, 2
medins [at 40 medins the ducat of 6s. = £6 12s. 3d. then =
about £40 now], in ready money. So there is nothing
remaining in his hands but a few books. With Thomas
Bostock, I left certain small trifles ; which, I pray you,
demand !

And so, once again, with my hearty commendations,
I commit you to the tuition of the Almighty, who always
preserve us ! From Aleppo, the 29th of May, 1583.

Yours assured,

John Newbery.

Being in Aleppo, and finding good company : we went from
thence to Bir, which is two days and a half travel with
camels.

Bir is a little town, but very plentiful of victuals : and
near to the wall of the town, runneth the river Euphrates.
Here we bought a boat : and agreed with a master and barge¬
men to go to Babylon. These boats be but for one voyage :
for the stream doth run so fast downwards that they cannot
return. They carry you to a town which they call Felugia,
and there you sell the boat for a little money. That which
cost you fifty at Bir, you sell there for seven or eight.

From Bir to Felugia is sixteen days’ journey. It is not
good that one boat go alone : for if it should chance to break,
you would have much ado to save your goods from the Arabs,
which be always thereabouts robbing. In the night, when
your boats be made fast, it is necessary that you keep good
watch : for the Arabs that be thieves, will come swimming,
and steal your goods, and flee away : against which a gun is
very good, for they do fear it very much.

3io Letter from Bagdad, to L. Poore. [ t jJfiy1 S

In the river Euphrates, from Bir to Felugia, there be
certain places where you custom (so many medins for a
Some or camel’s lading; and certain raisins and soap) which
are for the sons of Aborise, who is Lord of the Arabs and all
that great desert, and hath some villages upon the river.
Felugia, where you unlade your goods which come from
Bir, is a little village, from whence you go to Babylon in
a day.

Babylon [Bagdad] is a town not very great, but very popu¬
lous, and of great traffic of strangers ; for it is the way to
Persia, Turliia [ Turkestan ], and Arabia: and from thence, do
go caravans for these and other places. Here is great store
of victuals, which come from Armenia down the river of
Tigris.

Babylon, in times past, did belong to the Kingdom of
Persia : but now is subject to the Turk. Over against
Babylon, there is a fair village ; from whence you pass to
Babylon, along a bridge made of boats, and tied to a great
chain of iron : which is made fast on either side of the river.
When any boats are to pass up or down the river, they take
away certain of the boats until they be past.

When there is great store of water in the Tigris, you may
go from Babylon to Balsora, in eight or nine days. If there
be small store, it will cost you the more days.

J\1 A J3 T E R NeWBERY, FROM BaQDAD,
20TH JutY, 158 3, TO JV1 A g T E R
Leonard Poore, of London.

| Y last, I sent you, was the 29th of May [1583] last
IrS I past, from Aleppo, by George Gill, the Purser of

The last day of the same month, we came from
thence; and arrived at Felugia, the 19th of June, which
Felugia is one day’s journey from hence. Notwith¬
standing some of our own company came not hither
till the last day of the month ; which was for want of
camels to carry our goods. For, at this time of the year,
by reason of the great heat that is here, camels are very
scant to be gotten.

R?F1itS92.] From Bussorah to Ormus. 311

And since our coming hither, we have found very
small sales; but divers say, that in winter, our com¬
modities will be very well sold. I pray GOD ! their
words may prove true. I think cloth, kerseys, and tin
have never been here at so low prices as they are now.
Notwithstanding, if I had here so much ready money as
the commodities are worth, I would not doubt to make
a very good profit of this voyage hither, and to Balsora,
By GOD’s help, there will be reasonable profit made of
the voyage ; but, with half money and half commodities,
may be bought here the best sort of spices and other
commodities that are brought from the Indies ; and
without money there is here, at this instant, small good
to be done.

With GOD’s help, two days’ hence, I mind to go
from hence to Balsora ; and from thence, of force, I
must go to Ormus, for want of a man that speaketh the
Indian tongue.

At my being in Aleppo, I hired two Nazaranies
[? Nestorians], and one of them hath been twice in the
Indies, and hath the language very well : but he is a
very lewd fellow, and therefore I will not take him with
me. From Babylon [Bagdad] the 20th day of July, 1583.

Yours,

John Newbery.

Balsora, in times past, was under the Arabs, but now is
subject to the Turk. Some of them, the Turk cannot
subdue : for they hold certain islands in the river Euphrates
which the Turk cannot win of them. They be thieves, and
have no settled dwelling : but remove from place to place,
with their camels, goats, and horses ; wives and children and
all. They have large blue gowns ; their wives’ ears and
noses are ringed very full of rings of copper and silver, and
they wear rings of copper about their legs.

Balsora standeth near the Gulf of Persia, and is a town of
great trade for spices and drugs, which come from Ormus.
Also there is great store of wheat, rice, and dates growing
thereabouts ; wherewith they serve Babylon and all the
country, Ormus, and all the parts of India.

I went from Balsora to Ormus, down the Gulf of Persia,

312 Letter from Ormus, to J. Eldred.

in a certain ship made of boards, and sown together with
cairo, which is thread made of the husk of cocoa [nuts];
and certain canes or straw leaves sown upon the seams of
the boards, which is the cause that they leak very much.
And so having Persia always on the left hand, and the coast
of Arabia on the right hand, we passed many islands: and
among others, the famous island Baharem [Bahrein], whence
come the best pearls; which be round and orient.

Ormus is an island about twenty-five or thirty miles in
circuit, and is the driest island in the world : for there is
nothing growing in it, but only salt. For their water, wood, or
victuals, and all things necessary, come out of Persia; which
is about twelve miles from thence. All the islands there¬
about be very fruitful ; from whence all kinds of victuals are
sent into Ormus. The Portuguese have a Castle here which
standeth near unto the sea : wherein there is a Captain for
the King of Portugal, having, under him, a convenient
number of soldiers ; whereof some part remain in the Castle,
and some in the town.

In this town, are merchants of all nations, and many
Moors and Gentiles. Here is very great trade of all sorts of
spices, drugs, silk, cloth of silk, fine tapestry of Persia ; great
store of pearls which come from the isle of Baharem and are
the best pearls of all others ; and many horses of Persia,
which serve all India. They have a Moor to their King,
who is chosen and governed by the Portuguese.

Here, very shortly after our arrival, we were put in prison,
and had part of our goods taken from us by the Captain of the
Castle, whose name was Don Matthias de Albuquerque.

John Hewbery, frojvi Orjviujs, 2 i ? t
September, i 5 8 3, to J. B l d r e d a^d
W. Shale? at Bu??orah.

Right well beloved, & my assured good friends,

Heartily commend me unto you ! hoping of your
good health, &c. To certify of my voyage, after I
departed from you, time will not permit : but the
4th of this present we arrived here, and the ioth,

J'septTxsS.'] Newbery’s letters from Ormus prison. 313

I with the rest, were committed to prison ; and about
the middle of the next month, the Captain will send us all
in his ship for Goa.

The cause why we are taken, as they say, is that I
brought letters from Don Antonio [who was living in
England when the writer left ] : but the truth is, Michael
Stropene was the only cause; upon letters that his
brother wrote to him from Aleppo.

GOD knoweth how we shall be dealt withal in Goa !
and therefore if you can procure our masters [Sir
Edward Osborne and Master Stapers] to send the
King of Spain’s letters for our releasement, you should
do us great good : for they cannot with justice, put us
to death. It may be that they will cut our throats, or
keep us long in prison. GOD’s will be done !

All those commodities that I brought hither, had been
very well sold ; if this trouble had not chance.

You shall do well to send with all speed a messenger,
by land, from Balsora to Aleppo, to certify this mis¬
chance ; although it cost thirty or forty crowns [=£g
to £ 12 then— about £54 to £72 now ] that we may be the
sooner released; and I shall be the better able to recover
this again, which is now likely to be lost.

I pray you make my hearty commendations, &c.

From out of the Prison in Ormus, this 21st [day] of
September, 1583.

John Kewbery, frojvi 0 r m u p, 24th
[September, 1 5 8 3, to J. Eedred and

W. $ H A JL E jS AT Bu^ORAH.

He bark of the Jews is arrived here, two days past ;
by whom I know you did write : but your letters
are not likely to come to my hands.

This bringer hath showed me here very great
courtesy ; wherefore, I pray you, show him what favour
you may !

About the middle of next month, I think we shall
depart from hence. GOD be our guide !

I think Andrew will go by land to Aleppo ; wherein,

314 Sailing from Ormus to Goa. L*?1^.

I pray you, further him what you may ! but if he should
not go ; then, I pray you, despatch away a messenger
with as much speed as possibly you may.

I can say no more ; but do for me, as you would I
should do for you, in the like cause ! And so with my
very hearty commendations, &c.

From out of the prison in Ormus, this 24th day of
September,

Yours,

John Newbery.

From Ormus, the nth of October, the Captain shipped us
for Goa, unto the Viceroy; who, at that time, was Don
Francesco de Mascharenhas. The ship wherein we were
embarked for Goa, belonged to the Captain ; and carried 124
horses in it. All merchandise carried to Goa in a ship
wherein there are horses, pay no customs at Goa. The horses
pay customs, the goods pay nothing : but if you come in a
ship which bringeth no horses, you are then to pay eight in
the hundred for your goods.

The first city of India that, after we had passed the coast
of Sind, we arrived at, upon the 5th of November, is called
Diu : which standeth on an island, in the kingdom of Cam-
baia, and is the strongest town that the Portuguese have in
those parts. It is very little, but well stored with mer¬
chandise ; for here, they lade many great ships with divers
commodities for the Straits of Mecca [the Red Sea], for Ormus,
and other places : and these be shipped of the Moors and
Christians ; but the Moors cannot pass, except they have a
passport from the Portuguese.

Going from Diu, we came to Daman, the second town of
the Portuguese in the country of Cambaia ; which is distant
from Diu, forty leagues. Here is no trade but of corn and
rice. They have many villages under them, which they
quietly possess in time of peace ; but in time of war, the
enemy is master of them.

From thence, we passed by Basaim, and from Basaim to
Tana. At both of which places, there is a small trade, but
only of corn and rice.

The 10th of November, we arrived at Chaul ; which standeth
in the firm land. There be two towns ; the one belonging

“;] Imprisoned, and cpiarged as spies. 315

to the Portuguese, and the other to the Moors. That of the
Portuguese is nearest to the sea, and commandeth the bay.
It is walled round about. Here is great traffic for all sorts
of spices and drugs, silk and cloth of silk, sandals, elephants’
teeth [tusks], much China work, and much sugar is made of
the nut called Gagam. The tree is called the Palmer,
which is the most profitable tree in the world. It doth
always bear fruit, and doth yield wine, oil, sugar, vinegar,
cords, coals. Of the leaves, are made thatch for the houses,
sails for ships, mats to sit or lie upon. Of the branches, they
make their houses, and brooms to sweep [with]. Of the
tree, wood for ships. The wine doth issue out of the top of
the tree. They cut a branch of a bough, and bind it hard ;
and hang an earthen pot upon it, which they empty every
morning and evening, and still [distill] it and put in certain
dried raisins, and it becometh very strong wine in a short
time.

Hither, many ships come from all parts of India, Ormus,
&c. ; and many from Mecca.

Goa is the principal city which the Portuguese have in
India ; wherein the Viceroy remaineth with his Court. It
standeth on an island, which may be twenty-five or thirty
miles about. It is a fine city ; and for an Indian town very
fair. The island is very fair, full of orchards and gardens,
and many palm trees; and hath some villages. Here be
many merchants of all nations. And the Fleet which cometh
every year from Portugal, which be four, five, or six great
ships, cometh first hither. They come, for the most part, in
September, and remain there forty or fifty days ; and then
go to Cochin, where they lade their pepper for Portugal.
Oftentimes, they lade one in Goa; and the rest go to Cochin,
which is an hundred leagues southward from Goa.

At our coming [30th of November], we were cast into the
prison, and examined before the Justice, and demanded for
letters. We were charged to be spies ; but they could prove
nothing against us. We continued in prison, until the 22nd
of December: and then we were set at liberty; putting in
sureties for 2,000 ducats [or rather Pardaos Xeraphines , see
p . 320, and Vol. II. pp . 58-64], not to depart the town, which
sureties, Father STEVENS, an English Jesuit (whom we found
there) and another religious man, a friend of his, procured
for us.

316 Letter from Goa, to L. Poore. [£j55^J5SJ

John Kewbery, from Qoa, 20th

J A U ,A Y, 1584, TO jVl A 8 T E R

ii e o f) a r d Poore, of J_< o n d o jt .

This and the following letter were warily written ; so as not to compro¬
mise the writers with the Jesuit priests, if they had been detected and
read.

last I sent you, was from Ormus, whereby
certified you, what was happened unto me and the
:st of my company : which was that, four days
'ter our arrival there, we were all committed to
prison ; except one Italian who came with me from
Aleppo, whom the Captain never examined, but only de¬
manded “What countryman he was?” But I make
account, Michael Stropene, who accused us, had
informed the Captain of him.

The first day we arrived there, this Stropene accused
us that “ we were spies sent from Don Antonio,”
besides divers other lies : notwithstanding, if we had
been of any other country than of England, we might
freely have traded with them.

And although we be Englishmen, I know no reason
to the contrary, but that we may trade hither and thither,
as well as other nations. For all nations do and may
come freely to Ormus ; as Frenchmen, Flemings,
Almains \Germans ], Hungarians, Italians, Greeks, Arme¬
nians, Nazaranies [Nestorians], Turks and Moors, Jews
and Gentiles, Persians, and Moscovites; and there is
no nation they seek to trouble, but ours : wherefore it
were contrary to all justice and reason that they should
suffer all nations to trade with them, and forbid us.

But now I have as great liberty as any other nation,
except it be to go out of the country ; which thing, as
yet, I desire not : but I think, hereafter, and before it be
long, if I shall be desirous to go from hence, that they ,
will [shall] not deny me licence.

Before we might be suffered to come out of prison, I
was forced to put in sureties for 2,000 pardaos not to de¬
part from hence, without licence of the Viceroy. Other-

/o jln^sS:] Archbp. Fonseca helps the Englishmen. 317

wise, except this, we have as much liberty as any other
nation ; for I have our goods again, and have taken a
house in the chiefest street in the town, called the Rue
Drette, where we sell our goods.

There were two causes which moved the Captain of
Ormus to imprison us, and afterwards to send us hither.
The first was because Michael Stropene had accused
us of many matters, which were most false. And the
second was that Master Drake, at his being at the
Moluccas [in 1580], caused two pieces of the ordnance
to be shot at a galleon of the Kings of Portugal, as they
say. But of these things, I did not know at Ormus.

In the ship that we were sent in, came the Chief
Justice in Ormus, who was called the Aveador General
of that place. He had been there three years, so that
his time was now expired. This Aveador is a great
friend to the Captain of Ormus ; and, certain days after
our coming from thence, sent for me into his chamber
[on board the ship], and there began to demand of me
many things, to which I answered.

And, amongst the rest, he said that “Master Drake
was sent out of England with many ships, and came to
the Moluccas, and there laded cloves ; and finding there
a galleon of the Kings of Portugal, he caused two pieces
of his greatest ordnance to be shot at the same.”

So, perceiving that this did greatly grieve them, I
asked, “ If they would be revenged on me, for that
which Master Drake had done ? ”

To which, he answered, “ No ! ” although his meaning
was to the contrary.

He said, moreover, that “ The cause why the Captain
of Ormus did send me to Goa was, that the Viceroy
should understand of me, what news there was of Don
Antonio ; and whether he were in England, yea or no :
and that it might be all for the best that I was sent
thither.” Which I trust in GOD will so fall out, although
contrary to his expectation.

For had it not pleased GOD to put it into the minds of
the Archbishop, and two Padres, J esuits of Saint Paul’s Col¬
lege, to stand our friends, we might have rotted in prison.

The Archbishop is a very good man : who hath two

3 1 8 J. Story enters the Jesuits’ College.

young men his servants. One of them was born at
Hamburg, and is called BERNARD BORGERS : and the
other was born at Enkhuisen, whose name is JOHN
Linscot \i.e., Jan Huyghen van Linschoten] ; who
did us great pleasure. For by them, the Archbishop
was, many times, put in mind of us.

And the two good Fathers of Saint Paul’s, who
travailed very much for us, one of them is called Padre
Mark, who was born in Bruges, in Flanders : and the
* He was other was born in Wiltshire, in England, and
n”w college, is called Padre Thomas Stevens."

Oxford. Also, I chanced to find here a young man,

who was born in Antwerp ; but the most part of his bring¬
ing up hath been in London. His name is Francis de
Rea : and with him it was my hap to be acquainted in
Aleppo ; who, also, hath done me great pleasure here.

In the prison at Ormus, we remained many days.
Also, we lay a long time at sea coming hither. Forth¬
with, at our arrival here [on 30 November], we were
carried to prison : and, the next day after, were sent
for before the Aveador, who is the Chief Justice, to be
examined. When we were examined, he presently sent
us back again to prison.

And after our being there in prison thirteen days,
James Story went [on 12 December] into the Monastery
of Saint Paul ; where he remaineth, and is made one of
the Company : which life he liketh very well.

And upon St. Thomas’s day [21 December], which
was twenty-two days after our arrival here, I came out
of prison; and the next day after, came out Ralph Fitch
and William Leedes.

If these troubles had not chanced, I had been in
possibility to have made as good a voyage as ever any
man made with so much [such an amount of] money.

Many of our things I have sold very well, both here
and in prison at Ormus : for, notwithstanding, the
Captain willed me, if I would, to sell what I could,
before we embarked. So, with officers, I went divers
times out of the Castle in the morning, and sold things ;
and, at night, returned again to prison. All things that
I sold, they did write : and at our embarking from

20 janTis?.] T he good bargains of M. Albuquerque. 319

thence, the Captain gave order that I should deliver all
my money, with the goods, into the hands of the Scrivano ,
or Purser, of the ship ; which I did. The Scrivano made
a remembrance, which he left there with the Captain, that
myself with the rest, with money and goods, he should
deliver into the hands of the Aveador General of India.

But at our arrival here, the Aveador would neither
meddle with goods nor money, for he could not prove
anything against us ; wherefore the goods remained in
the ship nine or ten days, after our arrival. And then,
because the ship was to sail from thence, the Scrivano
sent the goods on shore ; and there they remained a day
and a night, and nobody to receive them.

In the end, they suffered this bringer [the carrier of this
letter ] to receive them, who came with me from Ormus ;
and put them into an house which he had hired for me,
where they remained four or five days.

But, afterwards, when they should deliver the money,
it was concluded by the Justice that both money and
goods should be delivered into the positor’s [security's]
hands, where they remained fourteen days [i.e*, to 4 th
January , 1584] after my coming out of prison.

At my being in Aleppo, I bought a fountain of silver
gilt, six knives, six spoons ; and one fork trimmed with
coral for 25 sequins [=£1 5 s. then—£ J 10s. now] : which
the Captain of Ormus did take, and paid for the same
20 pardaos [i.e., pardaos de larines] = ioo larins=ioo
sequins [=£5 then— £30 now] there or here.

Also, he had five emeralds set in gold, which were
worth 500 or 600 crowns [ = £150 to £180 then - about
£goc to £1,080 now], and paid for the same 100 pardaos
[=£23 then— £130 now].

Also he had 19J pikes [an Eastern measure of length]
which cost in London 205. the pike, and was worth 9 or
10 crowns [£2 14 s. or £3 then = £16 4s. to £18 now] the
pike : and paid for the same 12 larins [ = 12s. then = £3 12s.
now] a pike.

Also he had two pieces of green kerseys, which were
worth 24 pardaos[~-£6 then— £36 now] the piece ; and
paid for them 16 pardaos [~£\ then— £24. now].

320

[It may be useful to give here the following Table of the English values in Eliza¬
beth’s reign, of the principal Coins referred to in these Eastern narratives, expressed
in Portuguese Reis, on the basis of the gold Milreis— 13J. 4^., see Vol. II. ftp. 8-10 ;
with their equivalents in Spanish Maravedies, at 374 to the Ducat ordinarily
passed for 5 s. 6d. English money, but here proportionately taken at 5s. 4d.]

English.

Spanish

iguese.

Ducats. Mara-

Reis.

Pence

vedies.

- 1000

= i6o-o = 13s. 4d.

= 2i or 9 35

= 600

= 96*0 = 8s. od.

= 1 \ or 561

= 480

= 76-8

= i£ 448-8

= 450

= 72-0 = 6s. Od.

= ii or 420-75

= 450

= 72*0 — 6s. Od.

= ii <^42075

: 436

= 6976

==itt^'4°4‘6

= 400

= «4-o ={°"y,as}

= 1 or 374

Maravedies.

= 375

= 60 ‘o = 5s. Od.

= 3I8-75

= 360

= 57’6

= 306

= 300

= 48*0 = 4s. Od.

= 255

= l60

= 25 '6 = (ordinarily, 2s.)

= 136

= 100

= 16*0

= 85

= 75

= I2’0 = Is. Od.

6375

! 75

= 1 2*0 = Is. Od.

= 6375

! 6oi

= 9*6

= 51

Description of Coins. Po:

The Portuguese Milreis
The Venetiander [? the gold h
Ducat of Venice], of Goa >

[=10 Tangos'] . )

The Pagoda, of Goa [ = f

Tangas ] .

The French Crown, in Euro
The current or ordinary
Ducat , in the Euphrates

Valley .

The Piece of Eight ; which
had three other names,
the Royal of Eight , the
Royal of Plate, and, in
Goa, Pardao de Reale..

The Spanish and Portuguese

Ducat .

The Pardao of Larines , of \

Ormus . j

The Cruzado, of Malacca

[ = 6 Tangas] .

The Pardao Xeraphine , of I
Goa [ = 5 Tangas ] ... j

The Keysets Guilder, of \ _

Holland . j

The Teston , of Holland
The Larine, of Ormus [4=1
Pardao Xeraphine ; 5 = 1
Pardao de larines]

The Sequin, at Ormus ; there
taken as = the Larine ...

The good [i.e., of full weight ] '

Tanga, of Goa .

[The Tanga was the monetary Unit at Goa : 5 = 1 Pardao Xeraphine j
8=1 Pagoda ; 10= I Venetiander .]

The Spanish Rial of Silver } _

[11 = 1 Ducat] . j ~

The Stiver of Holland [10= [ _

I Teston] . \

The good Vintinoi Goa [15 [ _

= 1 Tanga] . j —

A single Spanish Maravedy ... —

Two Pence of Holland = a )
single Portuguese Rei. . j
A single good Bazarucho [5 )

— 1 Vintin ; 75 = 1 Tanga] j

6-4 (ordinarily, 6d.)

= 34

i*6

8-5

•64

3’4

1*176

= •188

= 1

= 16

•85

= -128

= *68]

ssjan.^.'] Fitch’s letter from Goa, to L. Poore. 321

Besides divers other trifles that the officers and others
had, in the like order ; and some, for nothing at all.

But the cause of all this, was Michael Stropene,
who came to Ormus not worth a penny, and now hath
30,000 or 40,000 crowns [ = ^9,000 to £12,000 then
= £54,000 to £72,000 now], and he grieveth that any
other stranger should trade thither but himself. But
that shall not skill ! For, I trust in GOD ! to go both
thither and hither, and to buy and sell as freely as he or
any other. Here is very great good, to be done in divers
of our commodities ; and in like manner, there is great
profit to be made with commodities of this country, to
be carried to Aleppo.

It were long for me to write, and tedious for you to
read of all the things that have passed since my parting
from you : but of all the troubles, since mine arrival in
Ormus, this bringer is able to certify you.

I mind to stay here : wherefore if you will write unto
me, you may send your letters to some friend at Lisbon;
and from thence, by the ships [carracks], they may be
conveyed hither. Let the direction of your letters be,
either in Portuguese or Spanish, whereby they may
come the better to my hands.

From Goa, this 20th day of January, 1584.

I^alph Fitch, from Qoa, 2 5 t h
January, 1 5 8 4, to JVl a 3 t e r
Leonard Poore of
L, 0 ji d 0 n .

Loving friend,

Ince my departure from Aleppo, I have not written
any letters unto you, by reason that at Babylon
[Bagdad] I was sick of the flux [ ? diarrhoea] : and,
being sick, I went from thence to Balsora [Bussorah],
which was twelve days’ journey down the Tigris.
Where we had extremely hot weather (which was good

x 4

322 The Venetians are mad at the English. [2S j^.1^

for my disease) ; ill fare, and worse lodging by reason
our boat was pestered [crowded] with people.

That which I did eat in eight days, was very small,
so that if we had stayed two days longer upon the water,
I think I had died. But coming to Balsora ; presently
I mended, I thank GOD !

There we stayed fourteen days, and then we embarked
ourselves for Ormus, where we arrived the 5th of
September, and were put in prison the 9th of the same
month, where we continued until the nth of October.
And then, were shipped for this city of Goa, in the
Captain’s ship ; with 114 horses and about 200 men.

Passing by Diu and Chaul where we went on land to
water, the 20th of November; we arrived at Goa, the
30th of the same month : where, for our better entertain¬
ment ! we were presently put into a fair strong prison ;
where we continued until the 22nd of December.

It was the will of GOD, that we found there two
Padres , the one an Englishman, the other a Fleming.
The Englishman’s name, was Padre Thomas Stevens,
the other’s Padre Marco ; of the Order of St. Paul.
These did sue for us unto the Viceroy and other Officers;
and stood us in as much stead as our lives and goods
were worth : for if they had not stuck to us, if we had es¬
caped with our lives, yet we had had a long imprisonment.

After fourteen days’ imprisonment, they offered us if we
could put in sureties for 2,000 ducats [i.e., Pardaos
Xeraphines ], we should go abroad in the town : which,
when we could not do, the said Padres found a surety
for us, that we should not depart the country, without
the licence of the Viceroy.

It doth spite the Italians [*.$., the Venetians] to see us
abroad : and many marvel at our delivery. The painter
is in the Cloister of St. Paul, and is of their Order; and
liketh it very well.

While we were in prison, both at Ormus and here,
there was a great deal of our goods pilfered and lost ;
and we have been at great charges, in gifts and other¬
wise : so that a great deal of our goods is consumed.
There is much of our things that will sell very well, and
some we shall get nothing for.

R?Fi592i] Andreas Taborer was their Surety. 323

I hope in GOD, that, at the return of the Viceroy, who
is gone to Chaul and to Diu, they say to win a castle of
the Moors ; whose return it is thought will be about
Easter [March 1584] , then we shall get our liberty, and
our surety be discharged. Then I think, it will be our
best way, either one or both to return : because our
troubles have been so great, and so much of our goods
spoiled and lost. [Was this a blind ? They evidently wanted
to go forward , as they actually did.]

But if it please GOD, that I come into England ; by
GOD’s help ! I will return hither again. It is a brave
and pleasant country, and very fruitful.

For all our great troubles, yet are we fat and well
liking [looking well ] : for victuals are here in plenty, and
good cheap.

And here I will pass over to certify you of strange
things, until our meeting : for it would be too long to
write thereof.

And thus, I commit you to GOD ! who ever preserve
you, and us all !

From Goain the East Indies, the 25th of January, 1584,
Yours to command,

Ralph Fitch.

Our surety’s name was Andreas Taborer, to whom we
paid 2,150 ducats [i.e., Pardaos Xeraphines — £430 then—
£2,580 now. This is probably the exact amount paid to the Surety :
being the Pledge-money , and something for his trouble ] : and still
he demanded more. Whereupon [in March 1584] we made
suit to the Viceroy and Justice “to have our money [the 2,000
ducats ] again ; considering they had had it in their hands
nearly five months [November 1583, to March 1584] and
could prove nothing against us.”

The Viceroy made us a very sharp answer, and said “ We
should be better sifted, before it were long; and that they had
further matter against us ! ”

Wherepon we presently [instantly] determined rather to
seek our liberties, than to be in danger to be slaves for ever in
the country. For it was told us, we should have the strappado .

Whereupon, presently [at once], the 5th day of April [Old
Style], 1584, in the morning, we ran from the place: and,

324 Linschoten’s account of the Englishmen. LLin?sch^«“-

being set over the river, we went two days* journey on foot,
not without fear, not knowing the way, nor having any
guide: for we durst trust none.

J A N H UYGHEN VAN LlNSCHOTEN.
Account of the Four Englishmen at Goa.

As LlNSCHOTEN says at/. 330, his information about Aleppo and
Ormus was derived from J ames Story, the English house painter.

t Discourse of Voyages Grc., 1598.]

N the month of December [or rather on 4 th September ,
see p. 312], anno 1583, there arrived in the town and
island of Ormus, four Englishmen ; who came from
Aleppo in the country of Syria, having sailed out of
England, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar to Tripolis,
a town and haven lying on the sea-coast of Syria, where all
the ships discharge their wares and merchandise, which from
thence are carried by land to Aleppo, which is a nine-days’
journey.

In Aleppo, there are resident divers merchants and factors
of all nations, as Italians, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Armenians
Turks, and Moors ; every man having his religion apart, and
paying tribute unto the Great Turk. In that town there is
great traffic. For from thence, twice every year, there
travelleth two caffylen [caravans], that is, companies of people
and camels, which travel into India, Persia, Arabia, and all
the countries bordering on the same, and deal in all sorts of
merchandise both to and from those countries.

Three of the Englishmen aforesaid were sent by the com¬
pany of Englishmen that are resident in Aleppo, to see if
they might keep any factors in Ormus ; and so traffic in that
place, like as also the Italians, that is to say, the Venetians,
do: who have their factors in Ormus, Goa, and Malacca, and
traffic there, as well for stones and pearls as for other wares
and spices of those countries ; which from thence, are carried
overland into Venice.

One of these Englishmen had been once before in the said
town of Ormus, and there had taken good information of
the trade ; and upon his advice and advertisement, the other

J. H. v. Linschoten.J J MPRIS0NMENT OF THE ENGLISHAT GOA. 325

three were then come thither with him, bringing great store
of merchandise with them, as cloths, saffron, all kinds of
drinking-glasses and haberdashers’ wares, as looking-glasses,
knives, and such like stuff ; and, to conclude, brought with
them all kinds of small wares that may be devised. And
although those wares amounted unto great sums of money;
notwithstanding it was but only a shadow or colour, thereby
to give no occasion to be mistrusted or seen into. For their
principal intent was to buy great quantities of precious
stones, as diamonds, pearls, rubies, &c. : to the which end,
they brought with them a great sum of money and gold ; and
that very secretly, not to be deceived or robbed thereof, or to
run into any danger for the same.

They, being thus arrived in Ormus, hired a shop, and began
to sell their wares; which the Italians perceiving (whose
factors continue there, as I said before, and fearing that
those Englishmen, finding good vent for their commodities
in that place, would be resident therein, and so daily increase),
did presently invent all the subtle means they could, to hinder
them. And to that end, they went unto the Captain of Ormus,
then called Don Gonsalo de Meneses [or rather, Don M. de
Albuquerque, see p. 312, and Vol. II. p. 49], telling him
that there were certain Englishmen come into Ormus that
were sent only to spy the country : and said further that
“ they were heretics, and therefore,” they said, “ it was conve¬
nient they should not be suffered so to depart ; without being
examined and punished as enemies, to the example of others.”

The Captain, being a friend unto the Englishmen, by
reason that the one of them, who had been there before, had
given him certain presents, would not be persuaded to trouble
them : but shipped them, with all their wares, in a ship that
was to sail for Goa; and sent them to the Viceroy, that he
might examine and try them, as he thought good.

Where, when they were arrived, they were cast into prison :
and first examined whether they were good Christians or not.
And because they could speak but bad Portuguese ; and that
two of them spoke good Dutch, having been certain years in
the Low Countries, and trafficed there : a Dutch Jesuit (born
in the town of Bruges in Flanders, that had resident in the
Indies for the space of thirty years) was sent unto them to
undermine and examine them. Wherein they behaved them-
1. x 2 4

326 Jesuits try to beguile the English. [J- H- v-?Liiischotea.

selves so well, that they were holden and esteemed for good
and catholic Romish Christians ; yet still suspected, because
they were strangers, especially Englishmen.

The Jesuits still told them they should be sent prisoners unto
Portugal, wishing them to leave off their trade of merchandise,
and to become Jesuits: promising them thereby to defend
them from all trouble. The cause why they said so, and
persuaded them in that earnest manner was that the Dutch
Jesuit had secretly been advertised of the great sums of
money which they had about them, and sought to get the
same into their fingers : for the first vow and promise they
make, at their entrance into their Order, is, to procure the
welfare of the said Order , by what means soever it be.

Although the Englishmen denied them, and refused the
Order, saying that “they were unfit for such places”;
nevertheless they proceeded so far that one of them, being a
painter (that came with the other three, to see the countries
and to seek his fortune; but was not sent thither by the
English merchants), partly for fear, and partly for want of
means to relieve himself, promised them to become a Jesuit :
and although they knew and perceived well he was not any
of those that had the treasure ; yet because he was a painter
(whereof there are but few in India), and that they had great
need of him to paint their church, which otherwise it would
cost them great charges to bring one from Portugal, they
were very glad thereof ; hoping, in time, to get the rest of
them, with all their money, into their fellowship. So that,
to conclude, they made this painter, a Jesuit, where he con¬
tinued certain days; giving him good store of work to do,
and entertaining him with all the favour and friendship they
could devise ; and all to win the rest. But the other three
continued still in prison, being in great fear, because they
understood no man that came to them, nor any man almost
knew what they said ; till, in the end, it was told them that
certain Dutchmen dwelt in the Archbishop's house, and
counsel given them to send unto them.

Whereat they much rejoiced, and sent to me and to another
Dutchman, desiring us once to come, and speak with them ;
which we presently [at once ] did. They, with tears in their eyes,
made complaint unto us of their hard usage, showing us from
point to point, as is said before, why they were come into the

J.H.v.Linschoten.J ^HE JeSUITS FIND THEM THE SURETY. 32 ?

country : withal desiring us, for GOD’s sake, if we might, by
any means, help them, that they might be set at liberty upon
sureties, being ready to endure what justice should ordain
for them ; saying “ that if it were found contrary, and that
they were other than travelling merchants, and sought to find
out further benefit by their wares, they would be content to be
punished.”

With that, we departed from them, promising them to do
our best : and, in the end, we obtained so much of the Arch¬
bishop, that he went unto the Viceroy to deliver our petition ;
and persuaded him so well that he was content to set them at
liberty, and that their goods should be delivered unto them
again, upon condition that they should put in surety for 2,000
pardaos [=£400 then=£ 2,400 now] not to depart the country
before other order should be taken with them.

Thereupon, they presently found a citizen of the town, that
was their surety for 2,000 pardaos, and they paid him [i.e., at
first] 1,300 pardaos [=£260 then=£ 1,560 now] in hand; and
because they said they had no more ready money, he gave
them credit, seeing what store of merchandise they had,
whereby at all times, if need were, he might be satisfied [but
he was eventually paid 2,150 pardaos, see p. 320]: and by that
means they were delivered out of prison, and hired them¬
selves a house, and began to set an open shop.

So that they uttered much ware, and were presently well
known among all the merchants, because they always respected
gentlemen, specially such as bought their wares; showing
great courtesy and honour unto them : whereby they won
much credit, and were beloved of all men, so that every man
favoured them, and was willing to do them pleasure.

To us, they showed great friendship ; for whose sake, the
Archbishop favoured them much, and showed them very good
countenance, which they knew well how to increase, by offer¬
ing him many presents: although he would not receive them,
neither would ever take gift or present at any man’s hands.
Likewise they behaved themselves very Catholic, and very
devout, every day hearing mass with beads in their hands ;
so that they fell into so great favour that no man carried an
evil eye, no, nor an evil thought towards them.

Which liked not the Jesuits, because it hindered them from
that they hoped for, so that they ceased not still, by this

328 Jesuits covet the Englishmen’s money. [Lin?sch?g“:

Dutch Jesuit, to put them in fear, that they should be sent
into Portugal to the King, counselling them to yield them¬
selves Jesuits into their cloister, “ which if they did,” he said,
“ they would defend them from all, in troubles.” Saying
further, “that he counselled them therein as a friend, and one
that knew for certain, that it was so determined by the
Viceroy’s Privy Council, which to effect,” he said, “they
stayed but for shipping [1 i.e ., the C arracks] that should sail
for Portugal” : with divers other persuasions to put them in
some fear, and so to effect their purpose.

The Englishmen, on the contrary, durst not say anything
to them, but answered that “ they, as yet, would stay awhile,
and consider thereof,” thereby putting the Jesuits in good
comfort, as one among them, being the principal of them,
called John Newbery, complained to me oftentimes, saying,
“ he knew not what to say or think therein; or which way he
might be rid of those troubles.”

But, in the end, they determined with themselves, to depart
from thence, and secretly by means of contrary friends, they
employed their money in precious stones ; which the better
to effect, one of them [William Leedes] was a jeweller, and
for the same purpose came with them. Which being con¬
cluded among them, they durst not make known to any man;
neither did they credit [trust] us so much as to show us their
minds therein, although they told us all whatsoever they knew.
But on a Whitsunday [Fitch says on 5th April , 1584, O.S. ; see
p . 323]> they went abroad to sport themselves about three
miles from Goa, in the mouth of the river, in a country called
Bardes, having with them a good store of meat and drink.
And because they should not be suspected ; they left their
house and shop, with some wares therein unsold, in the custody
of a Dutch boy by us provided for them, that looked unto it.
This boy was in the house, not knowing their intent.

Being at Bardes, they had with them a patamar , which is
one of the Indian posts, which, in winter times, carry letters
from one place to another ; whom they had hired to guide
them. And because that between Bardes and the firm land
there is but a little river, in a manner half dry, they passed
over it on foot ; and so travelled by land : being never heard of
again. It is thought they arrived in Aleppo, as some say ;
but they knew not certainly. Their greatest hopes was that

Linsehoten.] STORY LEAVES THE j ESUITS, & SETTLES AT GOA. 329

John Newbery could speak Arabic, which is used in all those
countries, or, at the least, understood 2 for it is very common
in all places thereabouts, as French, with us.

News being come to Goa, there was a great stir and
murmuring among the people, and we much wondered at it :
for many were of opinion that we had given them counsel so
to do. And presently [instantly] their surety seized upon the
goods remaining, which might amount unto above 200
pardaos [=£40 then— £240 now] ; and with that, and the
money he had received of the Englishmen, [apparently only
the 1,300 Pardaos, keeping the 650 to himself], he went unto
the Viceroy, and delivered it unto him : which the Viceroy
having received, forgave him the rest.

This flight of the Englishmen grieved the Jesuits most;
because they had lost such a prey, which they made sure ac¬
count of. Whereupon, the Dutch Jesuit came to us, to ask
us if we knew thereof ; saying, “ that if he had suspected so
much, he would have dealt otherwise. For that,” he said,
“ he once had in his hand a bag of theirs wherein was 40,000
Venesanders [or Venetianders].” Each Venesander being two
Pardaos [i.e. = 8s, see p. 320. The amount was therefore £ 16,000
then=£g 6,000 now]. Which was when they were in prison.
“ And that they had always put him in comfort to accomplish
his desire. Upon the which promise, he gave them their
money again : which otherwise they should not so lightly have
come by, or paradventure never,” as he openly said. And in
the end, he called them heretics and spies ; with a thousand
other railing speeches which he uttered against them.

[James Story], the Englishman that was become a Jesuit,
hearing that his companions were gone, and perceiving that
the Jesuits showed him not so great favour, neither used him
so well as they did at the first, repented himself. And see¬
ing he had not, as then, made any solemn promise ; and being
counselled to leave the house, and told that he could not
want a living in the town, as also that the Jesuits could not keep
him there, without he were willing to stay, so that could not
accuse him of anything, he told them flatly, that “He had no
desire to stay within the Cloister” : and although they used all
the means they could, to keep him there, yet he would not
stay; but hired a house without the Cloister, and opened a
shop where he had good store of work. And, in the end,

330 The 3 Englishmen separate at Agra. [r’?f^

married a mestizo's daughter, of the town. So that he made
his account to stay there, while he lived.

By this Englishman, I was instructed in all the ways,
trades, and voyages of the country between Aleppo and
Ormus : and of all the ordinances and common customs
which they usually hold during their voyage overland ; as also
of the places and towns where they passed.

Since those Englishmen’s departure from Goa [April
1584] there never arrived [until November 1588, when
Linschoten left India ] any strangers, either English or
others, by land in the said countries ; but only Italians, which
daily traffic overland, and use continual trade, going and
coming, that way.

From the point of the three Englishmen’s escape from Goa, we
give a brief outline of Fitch’s travels, from Hakluyt’s Voyages.
They met an Ambassador of the Emperor Akbar, and went with
him to his Court at Agra. Where

We stayed all three until the 28th of September, 1585.

Then Master John Newbery went towards the city of
Lahore : determining from thence, to go for Persia ; and
then for Aleppo or Constantinople, which he could get soonest
passage unto. [. Apparently , he never reached England .]

He directed me to go to Bengal and Pegu ; and did pro¬
mise me, if it pleased GOD, to meet in Bengal, within two
years, with a ship out of England.

I left William Leedes, the jeweller, in the service of the
Emperor Akbar at Agra : who did entertain him very well ;
and gave him a house, and five slaves, a horse, and every day
six S.S. in money.

I went from Agra to Satagam in Bengal, in the company
of 180 boats laden with salt, opium, hinge, lead, carpets,
and divers other commodities, down the river Jumna.

From Agra, I came to Prage [now, Allahabad ], where the
Jumna entereth the mighty river Ganges, and loseth his name.

From thence, we went to Benares ; which is a great town.

From Benares, I went to Patna, down the river Ganges,
where, in the way, we passed many fair towns and a very
fruitful country.

VS;] Fitch journeys to Pegu and Malacca. 331

From Patna, I went to Tanda, which standeth a league
from the river Ganges.

I was five months coming to Bengal ; but it may be sailed
in a much shorter time.

I went into the country of Couche, which is twenty-five
days’ journey northwards from Tanda.

From thence I returned to Hooghly, which is the place
which the Portuguese keepeth in the country of Bengal. It
standeth 230 N., and a league from Satagam. They call it
Porto Piqueno.

Not far from Porto Piqueno south-westward, standeth an
haven, which is called Porto Angeli, in the country of Orissa.

From Satagam, I travelled by the country of Tippara to
Porto Grande or Chatigan.

From Chatigan in Bengal, I came to Batticola.

From Batticola, I went to Serrepore [? Serampore ], which
standeth on the river Ganges.

I went from Serrepore, the 28th of November, 1586, for
Pegu ; in a small ship or foist of one Albert Carvallos.

From Bengal to Pegu is ninety leagues. We entered the
bar of Negrais, which is a brave bar, and hath four fathoms
of water where it hath least. Three days after, we came to
Cosmin, which is a very pretty town.

From the bar of Negrais to the city of Pegu is ten days’
journey by the rivers. We went from Cosmin to Pegu in
praus or boats.

I went from Pegu to lamabey. It is twenty-five days
journey north-east from Pegu.

The 10th January [1588] I went from Pegu to Malacca :
and so came to Malacca the 8th of February, where the
Portuguese have a castle, which standeth near the sea.
[Then just relieved by the Portuguese , see Vol. II. p. 46.
Afhu!SEn, Vol. II. p. 1 10, must have been there at the same
time as Fitch.]

The 29th of March, 1588, I returned from Malacca to
Martavan, and so to Pegu ; where I remained a second time
until the 17th of September ; and then I went to Cosmin,
and there took shipping. And passing many dangers, by
reason of contrary winds, it pleased GOD that we arrived in
Bengal in November following. Where I stayed, for want ol
passage, until the 3rd of February, 1589 ; and then I shipped
myself for Cochin.

332 Fitch returns home, by Goa and Aleppo. [R?F‘t5r9h2<

We arrived in Ceylon the 6th of March : where we stayed
five days to water, and to furnish ourselves with other neces¬
sary provision.

The nth of March, we sailed from Ceylon ; and so doubled
Cape Cormorin. From thence, we passed by Coulan [ Quilon ],
which is a fort of the Portuguese : whence cometh great store
of pepper, which cometh for Portugal. Oftentimes, one of the
carracks of Portugal ladeth there. Thus passing the coast,
we arrived in Cochin, the 22nd of March.

I remained in Cochin until the 2nd of November, which
was eight months ; for there was no passage in all that time.
If I had come two days sooner, I had found a passage pre¬
sently [at once].

From Cochin, I went to Goa ; where 1 remained three
days. [A rather risky visit /]

From Goa, I went to Chaul, where I remained twenty-three
days. And there making my provision of things necessary
for the ship, I departed from thence to Ormus : where I stayed
for a passage to Balsora, fifty days.

From Ormus, I went to Balsora or Basora ; and from
Basora to Babylon [Bagdad] 1 and we passed the most part
of the way up the Tigris by the strength of men by hauling
the boat up the river with a long cord.

From Babylon, I came by land to Mosul, which standeth
near to Nineveh, which is all ruinated and destroyed. It
standeth fast by the river Tigris.

From Mosul, I went to Merdin [Mardin], which is in the
country of the Armenians : but now a people, which they
call Kurds, dwell in that place.

From Merdin, I went to Orpha [ Urfah ], which is a very fair
town; and it hath a goodly fountain full of fish; where the
Moors hold many great ceremonies and opinions concerning
Abraham. For they say, he did once dwell there.

From thence, I went to Bir, and so passed the river
Euphrates.

From Bir I went to Aleppo, where I stayed certain months
for company, and then, I went to Tripolis ; where finding
English shipping, I came, with a prosperous voyage to
London : where, by GOD’s assistance, I safely arrived the
29th of April, 1591 : having been eight years out of my native
country.

9088 000

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